Thailand's military rulers held out little hope for early elections a week after the army seized power, saying conditions had to be right and divisions healed before there could be a return to civilian rule, according to The Associated Press.
Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha ousted the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22 to end months of protests that had depressed Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy, the AP reported.
"It is the council's intention to create the right conditions ... to put Thailand on the path to free and fair elections," Lieutenant General Chatchalerm Chalermsukh, deputy army chief of staff, told reporters, referring to the junta, according to the AP.
Thailand has become separated between supporters of Yingluck and her influential brother, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and the royalist establishment that sees Thaksin and his pro-business, populist ways as a threat to the old order, the AP reported.
Chatchalerm did not elaborate on what conditions were needed for an election, but said the military wanted to see reconciliation and an end to the political rift that emerged after Thaksin won his first election in 2001, according to the AP.
The United States and other allies have criticised the coup and called for a quick return to democracy, the AP reported.
The army was forced to step in because of six months of debilitating anti-government protests organized by a pro-establishment politician, Suthep Thaugsuban, according to the AP.
"Administrative paralysis has been devastating for Thailand. It put a strain on Thailand's GDP which became negative for the first time in many years," Thaugsuban said, the AP reported.
The military has moved quickly to tackle economic problems, notably preparing payments for hundreds of thousands of rice farmers that the ousted government was unable to make, according to the AP.
