BANGKOK, 1 June 2014 – Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha says the process of reconciliation between political factions and reform will likely take about one year and after that a general election would be staged.
According to Gen Prayuth, head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), a legislative council will be established in order to select a prime minister, appoint a cabinet to oversee the administration and draft a new constitution, as well as set up a reform council to reform all the issues that the society desires, which are acceptable to all groups. The whole process will likely take up to a year, he added.
He also made known that the NCPO did not want to take over power, nor did it desire to abuse its power for any kind of its own benefits, but that the country had not been able to move forward before the coup, adding that if the military and civil servants did nothing at all, who else would look after the people or solve the problems when the full democratic system could not function the way it was supposed to.
The military led by Gen Prayuth and other leaders of the Thai armed forces decided to stage a coup on May 22nd in an attempt to stop violence and put an end to the political conflict that had been dragging on between two rival groups for almost nine years .
