Thailand's general election set for May 14 will bring new faces into the fray but is likely to be overshadowed by old animosity between the military-royalist establishment and popular opposition parties challenging the status quo.
The confrontation in the kingdom has shaped a tumultuous two decades of street protests, judicial intervention and coups that were quelled in recent years, largely by COVID-19 curbs, but could well play out again.
The main election contest will be between the rural-based political juggernaut founded by telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, and the conservative, Bangkok-based political elite, dominated by pro-military forces that have ruled since the last coup in 2014.