BANGKOK, Feb. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands polling stations around Thailand closed on Sunday afternoon, declaring a smooth end of voting of the one-day general election.

    The whole voting proceeded peacefully all around the country and the Election Commission would start counting votes immediately, reported a local TV station.

    The second general election under Thailand's 1997 constitution was believed to attract a record-high turnout rate of 70 percent on Sunday.

    The election, set to be won by the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party, has developed into heated campaigns in past months with the oppositions aimed to prevent Thai Rak Thai achieving its' goal of winning 350 seats among the 500 lower house seats.

    The largest opposition Democrat described the election as a war of guarding Thailand's democratic system, for no opposition party can launch non-confident debate in the parliament and the government can amend constitution as its will if Thai Rak Thai gains 350 seats.

    Great attention was also paid to constituency of the country's tsunami-affected areas, where authorities have arranged special transport for voters to observe their right.

    The kingdom's unrest Muslim-dominated deep south is the other hot-spot of the election, with reinforced troops to guarantee voters' safety.

    Voters around the country have smoothly cast their ballots at 83,862 polling stations and the result of the voting would come out around midnight, declared the Election Commission.

    More than 20 parties have registered their candidates for the election, which will select 500 members for the new lower house of the parliament. The party winning half of the seats will form the new government.

    However, studies carried out by local think-tank and media predicted that only four parties will have a say in the election, namely the ruling Thai Rak Thai, the largest opposition Democrat, Chat Thai and Mahachon.

    Moreover, the Thai Rak Thai Party led by the Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to win the election and the suspense of the campaign hangs over at the point as whether Thai Rak Thai can win a majority of 350 seats as they planned.

    Under the Thaksin government's four-year rule, Thailand has successfully recovered from the financial crisis of 1997 and the Thai economic reached a 6.7 percent growth rate, topping in southeastern Asia and following China as the second in whole Asia.

    Farmers and average civilians have also witnessed concrete improvement of life quality due to a series of low-interest loan and foundation projects, while the kingdom's middle-class constituency concerns with corruption and human rights accusations against the government.

    The critics and oppositions therefore called on the public to block the Thai Rak Thai from growing super powerful.

    Democrat set its goal for this elevation as to win 201 seats so as to balance the power in parliament.

    "I voted for Democrats, just to prevent Thai Rak Thai from getting 350 seats and growing so powerful," a 37-year-old Bangkokian named Fon told Xinhua. Enditem