BANGKOK, Mar 25 (Agencies): Two rival camps contesting Thailand's first election since the military coup in 2014 have both said they are trying to form a coalition government.
Early results give the pro-military Palang Pracha Rath Party (PPRP) a larger share of the popular vote.
At the same time, the main opposition Pheu Thai party currently has the biggest number of seats in parliament.
But there are growing complaints about irregularities during Sunday's poll and a vote count marred by confusion.
The Electoral Commission (EC) is also facing strong criticism for its decision to delay publishing the full results without providing any explanation.
Thailand's complicated electoral system allocates some parliamentary seats according to the number of votes received.
Critics say electoral law changes introduced by the military in 2017 are primarily designed to keep pro-military forces in power.
On Monday, the EC announced that Pheu Thai party, which is linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, had won 138 seats in the 500-strong lower chamber of parliament.
The PPRP, which supports Thailand's current leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha, was in the second place with 96 seats.
Several other parties were getting between 30 and 39 seats each.
Thailand's anti-junta Pheu Thai party said Monday it will try to form a government despite losing the popular vote to a military-backed party in the first election since a 2014 coup, highlighting the nation's deep political polarization.
Pheu Thai leader Sudarat Keyurapha said it won the most constituency seats in Sunday's election and will try to form a government with similar-minded parties.
But the party faces an uphill battle because selection of the next prime minister will be decided by the 500-member lower house as well as a 250-member junta-appointed Senate.
Thailand's election was marred by"irregularities" and "rigged" to ensure the military retain their political grip on the kingdom, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra told AFP in an interview on Monday.
"Everyone knows in Thailand, everyone international that observed the election in Thailand, knows that (there) is irregularities," he told AFP in English. "What we call, we should call, rigged elections is there. It's not good for Thailand."
Unofficial results show the military-backed Palang Pracharat party won the popular vote, which along with the appointed Senate, puts junta leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha in a relatively strong position to stay in office and cobble together a coalition government.
The election is the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle pitching conservative forces including the military against the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand politics with a populist political revolution.
Thaksin was ousted as prime minister 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 Pheu Thai government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated prosecution.
The blunt-speaking Prayuth, who as army chief led the 2014 coup, has aimed to extend his hold on power by engineering a new political system that stifles the influence of big political parties not aligned with Palang Pracharat and the military.
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