Bangkok: The Thai Prime Minister, military leader Prayuth Chan-ocha, voted on Sunday in the country's first election since the military ousted an elected government in a 2014 coup.
Prayuth, the army chief who led the coup, is hoping to extend his hold on power after engineering a new political system that aims to stifle the influence of big political parties not aligned with the military.
About 51 million Thais are eligible to vote.
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Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule have urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Prayuth's plans.
The election is the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle between conservative forces including the military and the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand's politics with a populist political revolution.
When it seized power in 2014, the military said it was to end political unrest that had periodically turned violent and disrupted daily life and the economy.
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