<span style="color: #222222;">In Thailand, voting is underway for the general elections, first since the military ousted an elected government in a 2014 coup. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Schoolyards, temples and government offices are filled with  voters and a high turn out is expected. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">All television stations repeated the statement by King Maha Vajiralongkorn moments before polls opened asking voters to support "good" leaders to prevent "chaos". </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and the palace is nominally above the political fray.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the Army Chief who led the coup, is hoping to extend his hold on power after engineering a new political system that aims to stifle the influence of big political parties not aligned with the military. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">About 51 million people are eligible to vote, some seven million of them for the first time.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The military government in 2014 had promised to hold elections in 2015, which were later postponed many times.</span>