Pro-junta party takes lead in Thai election

BANGKOK, Mar 24 (Agencies): Thailand's junta-linked party took a shock lead in the country's first general election since a 2014 coup with nearly all ballots counted, the Election Commission said late Sunday (March 24), edging ahead of its pro-democracy rivals.

The election agency said on its Facebook page that, with 92 per cent of votes counted, the Phalang Pracharat party, which is seeking to keep junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha in power, led with 7.5 million votes.

Pheu Thai, the populist party linked to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and which has won every election since 2001, was second with 7.05 million.

Future Forward party, an upstart and fierce critic of the military government, is third with just over 5 million, followed by the Democrat Party, Thailand's oldest political party, with a little more than 3 million.

But the Election Commission announced late Sunday the unofficial results of the election will be announced on Monday at 10am (11am Singapore time). Chairman Ittiporn Boonprakong said the briefing will provide a tally with 95 percent counted.