Thailand sets date for first election since coup
BANGKOK: Thailand will hold a general election on March 24, authorities said on Wednesday, the first national poll since a 2014 coup knocked out the civilian government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
The military has since rewritten the constitution, muzzled all dissent and appointed junta allies across the bureaucracy in a bid to scratch the Shinawatra clan from the Thai political scene and embed its own influence in the country’s future.
“March 24 will be the election day,” Election Commission head Ittiporn Boonpracong told reporters, hours after the publication of a decree signed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn empowered the his agency to give a date.
Thailand’s history is pockmarked by coups, short-lived civilian governments and political crises.
The poll date is set to ignite campaign season in a country where colourful and boisterous political rallies have often tipped into deadly violence.