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Thai coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha formally endorsed by the king as head of a military council that will run the country.

Let's stop pretending about Thailand. There is a polite international fiction that last week's military coup is just a temporary interruption to democratic rule.

No. The evidence of this century is that Thailand is not a democracy at all.

The latest coup is confirmation that this is a country which fundamentally rejects the central precept of representative democracy that the people choose their rulers.

Illustration: John Shakespeare.

Since 2001, the people have chosen their rulers decisively. In six consecutive elections, they have voted for the party of Thaksin Shinawatra or his allies.

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His margin of victory in 2005 was the biggest in modern Thai history. His sister's margin of victory in 2011 was the second largest. The Thai people affirmed their choice yet again at the polls just three months ago.

There was electoral fraud, as there is in every Thai election. But no credible expert has tried to argue that the results of the last six elections did not reflect the people's choice.

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For Thai democracy, it's game over