Candidates make last-day pitch to voters

Thai opposition leaders toured Bangkok in open-top jeeps yesterday in a final-day bid to woo voters, urging them to turn out in force to oust the military-backed government.

The kingdom goes to the polls today with voters tipped to issue a damning verdict on former coup leader Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha after nearly a decade in power.

But in a country where coups and court rulings have often overturned election results, there are fears the military could seek to cling on -- despite the army chief insisting there would be no intervention this time.

Today's poll is the first since major youth-led pro-democracy protests erupted across Bangkok in 2020 with demands to curb the power and spending of Thailand's king -- breaching a long-held taboo on questioning the monarchy.

Those protests fizzled out as Covid-19 curbs were imposed and dozens of leaders were arrested, but their energy has fed into growing support for the rival opposition Move Forward Party (MFP).

MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat made his own push on an open-top truck tour yesterday, rallying support through a loudhailer.

"Please give the younger generation the opportunity to govern the country -- we will take care of the older generation," he told passersby.

The election has shaped up as a generational clash between the pro-democracy opposition, backed by young and rural voters, and the conservative, military-allied royalist establishment embodied by Prayut and his United Thai Nation party.