Thailand’s junta delayed a general election by at least six months yesterday, hours after former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was banned from travelling overseas, raising questions about a promised return to democracy.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, installed after the military seized power in last May’s coup, told reporters that the polls would take place in August 2016 at the earliest to allow for a referendum on the new constitution.
“It will take place around August or in September,” he said. The government had said voting would take place in February 2016.
Since taking power, the junta has come under domestic and international pressure to hold elections, which they say can only take place under a new constitution.
Yingluck was forced from office last year after the Constitutional Court found her guilty of abuse of power. Weeks later, the military removed the remnants of her government.
She is accused of negligence and dereliction of duty for her role in a multi-billion dollar rice subsidy scheme that anti-corruption authorities alleged was plagued with graft. Yingluck, who denies the charges against her, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty. She has accused her enemies of conducting a witch-hunt against her in order to handicap her family.
The court banned her from traveling overseas and agreed bail terms of 30 million baht.