While attending a summit hosted by Barack Obama in southern California last week, Thailand’s former army chief and current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha reassured the American president that his country was still on the path to organizing fresh elections and restoring democracy—nearly two years since Prayuth’s own coup d’état brought down Thailand’s last democratically-elected leader.
Since overthrowing Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in May 2014, the ruling National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has repeatedly pushed back promised elections; polls that were originally slated for mid-2015 are now expected in 2017 (or even 2018).