Thailand holds first Senate elections since coup

Thais went to the polls Sunday to vote in the country's first elections for the upper house of Parliament since a 2006 military coup ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The 76 members of the Senate to be elected, one from each of the country's provinces, will join 74 others already appointed by a committee made up of judges, the Election Commission and the heads of various independent agencies.
Informal results are expected to be announced late Sunday.
At the polling was largely peaceful, but an explosion near polling stations in the Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand restive south injured three soldiers.
The new Constitution, adopted last year divided the 150-member Senate appointed and elected members. Senators are not allowed to have political parties. Under the previous constitution, which was abolished after the coup, and all its members were elected.
The coup-makers ousted Thaksin on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Changes to the constitution were among a number of measures that they subsequently took power limit politicians.
The Senate has the right to remove members of the Cabinet, to appoint and remove the independent commissioners government organizations, as well as to approve laws passed the lower house.
Thai media said turnout nationwide was 50 percent to 60 percent - 70 percent less than the electoral commission estimated.
Election Commissioner Sodsri Sathayatham said the disappointing turnout was probably because the ballot followed so soon after the general election and that the candidates didn't campaign enough.
The Election Commission said members of the public had lodged 34 electoral fraud complaints by the time the polls closed. Vote-buying normally plagues Thai elections.
In the southern province of Narathiwat, a bomb exploded near a polling station, injuring three soldiers on patrol.
Narathiwat is one of three Muslim-majority provinces in the south suffered from a separatist rebellion that left more than 2900 people have died since January 2004.
In December, the elections 480 members of the lower House of Representatives, received a majority of seats in Thaksin Allied People's Power Party. It currently leads a six-party coalition government.