Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his regime have recognised from the start that military rule had a finite life that could only end peacefully with elections. Gen Prayut clearly showed that with his serial promises of an election "next year". It is reasonably clear that 2019 will belatedly deliver the promise, but not in the best way. Increasingly, the regime seems to be abusing its own rules to pursue an indefinite hold on power by unjust means.
The most obvious of these tactics are the prime minister's repeated "mobile cabinet meetings". These two-day trips around the country are the very definition of electioneering. There is no discernible difference between the current provincial voyages by Prime Minister Prayut and hundreds of appeals to the crowd by dozens of political party leaders in the past 80 years.
Local people get a day off, women's groups gather and children get a school holiday. If the meeting and greeting of local people weren't enough to rub in the exclusive electioneering by one, privileged party, there are the "gifts to the people" -- consisting of billions of baht in local-project funding to emphasise it. Many people who support the regime tolerate this rule-breaking, those opposed criticise it, yet neither has a direct effect.
