Thai junta says right conditions needed before polls

Friday, 30 May 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Thailand’s military rulers held out little hope for early elections on Thursday, a week after the Army seized power, saying conditions had to be right and divisions healed before there could be a return to civilian rule.

Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha ousted the Government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on 22 May to end months of protests that had depressed Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy and raised fears of enduring chaos. “It is the council’s intention to create the right conditions to put Thailand on the path to free and fair elections,” Lieutenant General Chatchalerm Chalermsukh, Deputy Army Chief of Staff, told reporters, referring to the junta. Thailand has become polarised between supporters of Yingluck and her influential brother, deposed Premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and the royalist establishment that sees Thaksin and his pro-business, populist ways as a threat to the old order. Chatchalerm did not elaborate on what conditions were needed for an election, but said the military wanted to see reconciliation and an end to the political rift that emerged after Thaksin won his first election in 2001.