Military in clear lead after Thais go to polls
Print Edition
Thailand鈥檚 ruling junta took an unexpected lead in the country鈥檚 first election since a 2014 coup with more than 90 percent of ballots counted, putting it on course to return to power at the expense of the kingdom鈥檚 pro-democracy camp.
Yesterday鈥檚 election was held under new laws written by the military to smooth its transformation into a civilian government.
While it had set the rules of the game in its favor, analysts had not expected the party to win the popular vote, given mounting anger at junta rule and due to the enduring popularity of Pheu Thai, the party of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The army-linked Phalang Pracharat party, which wants junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha to return as premier, gained more than 7.3 million votes with 91 percent of ballots tallied, according to the Election Commission 鈥 nearly half a million more than Pheu Thai.
The EC said it would announce full results today. The election pitted a royalist junta and its allies against the election-winning machine of billionaire Thaksin 鈥 who was toppled in a 2006 coup 鈥 and featured an unpredictable wave of millions of first-time voters.
There was a high turnout as voters flocked to schoolyards, temples and government offices across the nation, their enthusiasm fired by years of denied democracy.
The junta has pledged to rescue the kingdom from a decadelong treadmill of protests and coups.
The election commission鈥檚 announcement yesterday diminished prospects of a pro-democracy alliance nudging it from power. But still supporters clung on in hope.
鈥淟et鈥檚 wait until the counting is finished,鈥 said Savitree Yodchomchin, 58, outside the headquarters of Pheu Thai.
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