NEARLY five years after a coup, Thailand was voting yesterday in a long-delayed election that sets a military-backed party against the populist political force the generals overthrew.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the short-tempered army chief who led the 2014 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. Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule have urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Prayuth’s plans.

The junta leader was among the first to vote in the Thai capital Bangkok, arriving in a Mercedes, after polling booths opened at 8 a.m.

Speaking to reporters after casting his ballot, Prayuth said, “I hope everyone helps each other by going to vote today as it’s everyone’s right.”

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.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have won every election since 2001. His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led the government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated corruption prosecution.

Just days before the election, the Thaksin-allied Pheu Thai party said the houses of party officials and its campaign canvassers in some provinces were searched by military personnel in an act of intimidation.

The party’s leader, Sudarat Keyuraphan, said after voting in Bangkok’s Ladprao district that she was confident of winning.

“I don’t say it’ll be a landslide. I don’t know. Depends on the people. But I think we can win this election,” she said.

Thailand’s powerful King Maha Vajiralongkorn issued a statement on the eve of the election that said the role of leaders is to stop “bad people” from gaining power and causing chaos. It was also broadcast on Thai television stations minutes before voting started.

Thais are voting for a 500-seat parliament that along with a 250-member junta appointed Senate will decide the country’s next prime minister. That setup means a military-backed figure such as Prayuth could become leader even while lacking a majority in the parliament.

“The biggest challenge of this election is whether it will mark the beginning of a transitional democracy in Thailand,” said Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist. (SD-Agencies)