Elections in military-ruled Thailand will be delayed at least six months in the latest sign of the generals’ tightening grip on power.
The junta has pushed back the polls to August next year at the earliest, to allow time for a referendum to be held on a contentious draft constitution drawn up after the coup that ousted the administration of the former premier Yingluck Shinawatra a year ago.
The latest thrust in the battle for control of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy came hours after Ms Yingluck denied charges of criminal negligence at the start of a closely watched trial.
The previous election timetable scheduled the polls for February 2016, itself a slippage from initial promises to hold a vote this year. Wissanu Krea-ngam, deputy prime minister in the military-dominated government, said the polls would now take place “around August or in September”.
While the decision to hold the referendum promises to give the public some say in the military’s plans for sweeping political change, an election delay would also buy the generals more breathing space as they attempt to consolidate power. Their draft constitution, which would strip away the authority of elected parliamentarians and expand the powers of appointees and the military, has been attacked by civilian politicians and independent analysts.
Ms Yingluck, who was ousted by Thailand’s courts a fortnight before the military seized power from her government, appeared in court on Tuesday and denied she had negligently allowed corruption to flourish in a mismanaged multibillion dollar rice scheme popular in her northern electoral heartland.
The former premier says she is being targeted in a witch-hunt aimed at neutering the political influence of her family and in particular her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a self-exiled former telecoms tycoon whose parties have won every election since 2001.
About 200 of her supporters thronged outside the court, some yelling that she was the “people’s prime minister”. The court banned Ms Yingluck from travelling, set bail at almost $1bn and scheduled a further hearing for July 21.
