{"id":15891,"date":"2019-03-24T10:58:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T02:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=15891"},"modified":"2019-03-24T12:43:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T04:43:07","slug":"thailand-votes-in-first-election-since-2014-coup-marking-end-to-military-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=15891","title":{"rendered":"Thailand votes in first election since 2014 coup, marking end to military rule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"615\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages-1024x615.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15915\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages-1024x615.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages-600x360.jpg 600w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thailand-pm-vote-BeramaImages.jpg 1839w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption> <br>Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha casts his vote. Photo courtesy Bernama images <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>BANGKOK, March 24 (NNN- Xinhua) &#8212; Thai voters flock to polling stations across the country on Sunday for the country&#8217;s first general election since the 2014 coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eligible voters have been lining up at polling station since 6:00 a.m. local time. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha cast his ballot at a station in Bangkok at about 8:30 a.m. local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prime minister asked voters to use their rights properly to bring about unity and better development of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>High ranking government officials and leaders of political parties also showed up at polling stations in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"436\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thai-election-booth.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15917\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thai-election-booth.jpg 640w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thai-election-booth-300x204.jpg 300w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thai-election-booth-600x409.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption> <br>Polls have opened in Thailand on Sunday (Mar 24).\u00a0 Photo courtesy Bernama <br><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan reiterated that security of the country is the top priority of the government, ruling out political unrest during election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The vote will be held from 8:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. local time on Sunday. More than 51 million people are registered as eligible voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"615\" src=\"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction-1024x615.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15894\" srcset=\"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction-1024x615.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction-600x360.jpg 600w, http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/thaila-ledction.jpg 1839w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Photo courtesy Thai Government Twitter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There are more than 90,000 polling stations across the country. The Election Commission expected that at least 80 percent of voters will cast their ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unofficial results will be unveiled about three hours after the polling stations close. Official results will be announced before May 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn made a call for unity and happiness just 12 hours before the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the election, voters will choose 350 senators in the lower house. The new constitution allows parliament&#8217;s upper house, the 250-seat Senate, to vote with the 500-seat lower house to choose the prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pro-military parties would probably need 126 seats in the lower House of Representatives to win a majority in a combined vote. Opposition parties would need 376 seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BANGKOK, March 24 (NNN- Xinhua) &#8212; Thai voters flock to polling stations across the country on Sunday for the country&#8217;s first general election since the 2014 coup. Eligible voters have been lining up at polling station since 6:00 a.m. local time. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha cast his ballot at a station in Bangkok at about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":15915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215,291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}