Thailand’s military rulers held out little hope for early elections yesterday, a week after the army seized power, saying conditions had to be right and divisions healed before there could be a return to civilian rule.

Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha ousted the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on May 22 to end months of protests that had depressed Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy and raised fears of enduring chaos.

“It is the council’s intention to create the right conditions... to put Thailand on the path to free and fair elections,” Lieutenant General Chatchalerm Chalermsukh, the deputy army chief of staff, told reporters, referring to the junta.

Thailand has become polarised between supporters of Yingluck and her influential brother, deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra, and the royalist establishment that sees Thaksin and his pro-business, populist ways as a threat to the old order.

Administrative paralysis has been devastating for Thailand

Chatchalerm did not elaborate on the conditions needed for an election, but said the military wanted to see reconciliation and an end to the political rift that emerged after Thaksin won his first election in 2001.

“The two sides do not have to love each other, but we want the situation to stay calm and peaceful. We need a period of time for all sides to cool down.”

The US and other allies have criticised the coup and called for a quick return to democracy. Chatchalerm said the army had been forced to step in because of six months of debilitating anti-government protests, organised by a pro-establishment politician, Suthep Thaugsuban.

“Administrative paralysis has been devastating for Thailand. It put a strain on Thailand’s GDP which became negative for the first time in many years,” he said.