“In Thailand we like to say that this election is the decisive moment between the democratic side and undemocratic side,” says Peter Pongngern, a spokesman for the new Future Forward Party.
Ending five years of military rule, Thailand will finally host an election on 24 March. But after multiple delays, questions abound as to the fairness of the polls, particularly following the adoption of a 2017 constitution allowing the military to appoint senators. With military junta members creating their own party, many fear these elections may simply be a way to extend the military’s hold on power.
In 2014, General Prayut Chan-o-cha launched a coup against the government of Yingluck Shinawatra—the third time in eight years that the Shinawatras and their allies have been forcibly removed from power after being democratically elected.
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