Itthipol Khunpleum grabs the mic, bounds onto the stage and flashes a winning smile as he works the crowd gathered for a final rally: "Chonburi...show me your hands!" he says to wild applause.But he need not have bothered.

Parties for and against Thailand's military junta rallied across Bangkok on Friday, as election fever gripped the country ahead of its first poll in eight years.The boisterous final push before the 24 March showdown was infused with rarely seen levels of excitement and backlit by symbolism from afar, with the family of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra holding a politically star-studded wedding in Hong Kong on the same night.The generals who seized power in 2014 are hoping to hold on through

With elections mere days away, the number of parties contesting for the hearts and minds of Thai voters is overwhelming. The Pheu Thai Party has formed several splinter parties with all of them vying for seats.

Dressed in a Superman suit with a red cape flowing behind him, a sweaty David Pfizenmaier jogs through Bangkok's standstill traffic and stops to unfurl a sign."If you love Thailand: Vote," it says, below the hashtag #supermanbangkok.Thais go to the polls this weekend for the first time since a coup in 2014.The 40-year-old Thai-German said Thursday he is not campaigning for a specific party, but is instead on a mission to boost turnout, especially among younger voters, "bec

The issue of human rights has largely flown under the radar for the 81 parties contesting the Thai general election this Sunday.Freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and press freedom has deteriorated in Thailand since the military junta led by Prayut Chan-o-cha took over in 2014 and started the longest period of army rule in modern Thai history.

Thailand’s junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha has had absolute executive power since toppling the government five years ago. Now he’s looking to keep his job after an election – something previous military leaders in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy have struggled to do.The former army chief, who turns 65 this week, seized power after a coup in May 2014 and has led the longest period of army rule in modern Thai history.

Indonesia has threatened to ban imports of some goods from the European Union (EU) in retaliation for the bloc’s move to impose stricter limits on how palm oil can be used in green fuels.The world’s largest palm oil producer is considering such a step to protect the interest of almost 20 million people, whose livelihoods are tied to the commodity, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Dead dissidents dumped in a river, activists knotted up by the courts, and Big Brother-style internet laws – critics of Thailand's junta fear this week's election is poised to sharpen the dangers faced by those who disagree.Thais go to the polls on 24 March, in the first election since the 2014 coup that installed the generals in power.But it will be held under new rules established by a junta that has made clear it has no intention of leaving the political stage.Scores of dissident

A Myanmar court on Tuesday sentenced a prominent ethnic Rakhine leader to 20 years in jail for treason, a verdict likely to intensify anger amid fighting between the ethnic group and the army.Security forces tried to calm hundreds of supporters outside the court in Rakhine state capital Sittwe as Aye Maung was escorted to a waiting police van following the verdict.Aye Maung, the former chairman of the Arakan National Party – which is renowned for hard-line views against the Rohingya Muslim mi

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed Tuesday never to utter the name of the twin-mosque gunman as she opened a sombre session of parliament with an evocative "as salaam alaikum" message of peace to Muslims. "He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand," Ardern promised grieving Kiwis, while promising that she would deprive the man who slaughtered 50 people in Christchurch of the publicity he craved."He sought many things from his act of t