Pro-army party takes lead in Thai election

Bangkok

THAILAND'S junta-linked party took a shock lead in the popular vote with nearly all ballots counted, the Election Commission said late Sunday, edging ahead of its pro-democracy rivals in the first election since a 2014 coup.

The Phalang Pracharat party, which wants junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha to return as premier, gained more than 7.3 million votes with 91 per cent of votes tallied, according to the EC - nearly half a million more than Pheu Thai.

The upstart Future Forward party, a fierce critic of the military government, is surging with 4.31 million votes. The Democrat Party won a little more than 3 million votes and its leader, former Thai prime…