¡¡BANGKOK, April. 2 (Xinhua) -- Voting started in Thailand Sunday morning for the new round of parliamentary election called by Thai Caretaker Prime Minister in a bid to defuse mounting political tension.

    Polling began at 8:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) and will end at 3:00 p.m.(0800 GMT).

    Thai voters are casting their ballots at 86,905 polling stations in 400 constituencies of the country. About 45.2 million people are eligible to vote in the kingdom.

    Some 100 out of the more than 550 eligible voters at a polling station in western Bangkok have cast their ballots within one hour after the opening of the polling. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is expected to vote at the station.

    Inside the yard of Economic and Technological Crime Suppression Division alongside the Sathorn road, an area clustered with high-rises of foreign companies, a makeshift tent was set up to withstand the heat from tropical sunlight. Around the 20-square-meter space, cordons were erected to signal the area is designated only for voting.

    A dozen of Thais were queuing quietly under the tent, waiting to register and getting ballots distributed by staff of the Election Commission. They then stamped on the sheets before cast them into two separate boxes, one for the party, the other for candidates.

    "I vote for Thaksin because he has steered the country in the right direction. Under his leadership, our economy has grown very strong and healthy," said a company employee nicknamed Tuk.

    But another voter, a 32-year-old bank employee, told Xinhua after voting that "I am not a supporter of Thaksin, although he has done something good." The man who declined to reveal his name hinted that he had chosen to vote for nobody.

    Earlier, a group of 600 lecturers from 41 universities have urged voters to tick the "no vote" (abstention) box in Sunday's polling aims to end the political turmoil by ousting Thaksin from the office.

    They said the "no vote" could be the most peaceful and most effective way to edge Thaksin from power amid concerns that his return will widen rifts of the country.

    The number of abstained ballots could influence Thaksin's political future because he has pledged not to lead the next government if he obtains less than half of the votes cast Sunday, said political experts.

    Most of voters drove to the polling stations and some took taxi or through public transportation. The police officer on guard a polling station told Xinhua about two hundred Thais had cast the votes since the station was opened.

    It is reported that border patrol police have been posted at polling stations to ensure safety and order. Security has been beefed up in the three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani for fear of unexpected violence during the election.

    Some 18 political parties have put up 941 candidates to contestin the polls. But some one third of them have been barred from running due to disqualification.

    The ruling Thai Rak Thai party headed by caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is widely believed to pocket most of the seats of the 500-member House of Representatives this time.

    The Thai Rak Thai party won 248 seats in the 2001 election and 377 in 2005,

    Simmering criticism of Thaksin ruling broke out in late January following his family selling of its controlling stake in telecom giant Shin Corp. to a Singapore state-owned investment company for 1.9 billion U.S. dollars.

    Thaksin dissolved parliament in February and called snap elections on April 2 in hopes of renewing his mandate and defuse the street protests demanding his resignation over accusations of corruption and abuse of power.

    Despite the boycott by three major opposition parties, 56-year-old Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was determined to push forward the polls which he styled as a referendum on his rule.

    Marred by the alleged fraud and illegitimacy by the opposition, the poll is considered as high controversial and may trigger greater chaos in a country already plagued by street protest and confrontation over the past two months.

    As the third general election held under the kingdom's 1997 Constitution, the election officials hoped the turn out would be no less than last year's 72 percent. Enditem