The leaders of the May 22 coup are not sticking to the 1991 or 2006 scripts. For one thing, their seizure of power was prefaced, two days beforehand, by a declaration of martial law and demands that the warring political factions attend negotiations hosted by the army — accompanied by assurances that this was not a coup. When those talks failed to reach agreement, the army’s commander in chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, told shocked politicians that he was seizing power and arresting them. Whether this sequence of events reflected a cunning plan or a fit of pique on his part remains unclear.
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