Thailand elections won by pro-army party amid calls of democracy

Thailand's pro-army Palang Pracharat Party won the popular vote in Sunday's general election with 8.4 million ballots, the Election Commission said on Thursday as it released unofficial results of the first election since a military coup in 2014. This comes as Thai pro-democracy factions on Tuesday moved to unite and thwart a junta-backed party from forming a government after the first election since a 2014 coup.

The main opposition Pheu Thai Party, whose elected government was toppled in the coup, got 7.9 million votes, said Krit Urwongse, deputy secretary-general of the Election Commission. The results represented 100 per cent of the ballots counted but would remain unofficial until final results are announced on May 9. The commission has not announced the full number of seats for each party in the 500-seat House of Representatives.

Results for the lower house's 350 directly elected "constituent seats" showed Pheu Thai with 137 and the Palang Pracharat with 97. The remaining 150 House of Representatives seats is allocated according to a complex formula involving the total number of votes for each party.

However, parties have been calculating their share of the allocated seats based on partial results, and both Palang Pracharat and Pheu Thai have claimed they have a mandate to form the next government.