One of the party’s campaign pledges was to reform the military and end conscription. On May 14, Move Forward Party, which is led by a young, U.S.-educated leader, won the biggest share of seats in parliament on a wave of support from younger voters, easily defeating parties backed by the military, which has governed Thailand since a 2014 coup. Move Forward has since begun talks with other parties to form a coalition government. Think of this as Thailand’s “deep state.”Now the military faces a dilemma after an election that could prove the most consequential in a generation. Any elected government that takes on the military, or is seen as a threat to its status, runs the risk of being deposed, if not by tanks in the streets then by a “judicial coup,” in the form of a court order that disbars politicians and dissolves their parties. As a Monitor correspondent in Thailand, I covered elections and coups, in that order.
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