Prayuth

Yingluck herself was overthrown by Prayuth in the 2014 coup and last year fled Thailand before the verdict in a corruption trial – eliminating a charismatic party figurehead who might also have rallied opposition to Prayuth.

FILE PHOTO-Incumbent Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha campaigns for re-election in Phuket, Thailand May 7, 2023.

General Prayuth Chan-ocha, who spearheaded the 2014 coup, is running for reelection as prime minister.

General Prayuth contested the May general election as prime ministerial candidate for a new conservative political party, but it performed poorly, winning just 36 out of 500 seats in parliament.

Move Forward has a strong base among urban voters, including those who joined a youth-led protest movement that emerged in 2020 to challenged Prayuth.

Prayuth was also on the campaign trail on Saturday in the southern Chumporn province, the first with his new party.

Thailand has been ruled by its military leaders since 2014, when Prayuth Chan-ocha, then-army chief, overthrew Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in a coup.

Thailand’s main opposition party took an early lead in a vote count from Sunday’s general election, touted as a pivotal chance for change nine years after incumbent prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first came to power in a 2014 coup.

The election could upset the status quo after more than eight years of a conservative pro-military government led by former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha.

The elections commission, whose members Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha had chosen, used a previously undisclosed calculation to award parliamentary seats to minor, pro-military parties shortly after the votes concluded in 2019.

But with key Cabinet posts still in the hands of former generals, people are weary of the military's continuing influence on the running of the country and of Prayuth´s leadership and performance.

Cities and universities around the country have been standing in solidarity with the Bangkok protesters, with shouts of “Prayuth get out!” ringing from Chiang Mai in the north to Khon Kaen in Thailand’s eastern heartland.

In a string of protests staged across Thailand this week, thousands of students revived the country’s youth-led pro-democracy movement amidst the and demanded the resignation of Thai Army-backed Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Mr Pavin was not in Thailand when the country's current Prime Minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, orchestrated a military coup in 2014, when he was the army chief.

PM Prayuth: Don’t force me to use the highest measures.

Prayuth first took power when, as army chief, he led a coup to overthrow the elected government in 2014.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former general, came to power in 2014, after orchestrating a military coup that he said was necessary to protect the palace from naysayers.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha gave the final tally Sunday morning after visiting the wounded in hospitals.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first took power in a 2014 military coup, told reporters on Aug. 4, the day after Anon’s speech, that the government was open to talking to the students.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who visited the injured in hospital on Sunday, said the gunman killed 26 people and wounded 57.