Thailand's former PM writes opinion piece in NY Times; slams junta over 'manipulated' result

Thailand's ousted former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, said on Monday that the ruling military junta "manipulated" the results of an election after a party of his loyalists did worse than expected. Partial results of Sunday's election, the first since a military coup in 2014, showed an unexpected popular vote lead for a pro-military party that wants to keep junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister.

"I knew that the junta running Thailand wanted to stay in power, but I cannot believe how far it has gone to manipulate the general election on Sunday," Thaksin wrote in the opinion piece in the New York Times. Reuters could not immediately reach a government spokesman to seek comment.

A pro-Thaksin party on Monday also alleged cheating and said it was considering a legal challenge to the polls. (Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)