Thai PM dissolves parliament

All smiles: Prayut posing for photographs with reporters at the government house in Bangkok, after a press conference. — AP

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha dissolved the country’s parliament, setting up a general election in May as the former coup leader seeks to extend army-backed rule.

The vote pits unpopular former army chief Prayut, who came to power in a 2014 putsch, against the daughter of billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose shadow still looms over the kingdom’s political scene despite more than a decade in exile.