Thai ex-premier says ruling junta seeks 'backward democracy'

NEW YORK (AP) — Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006, has accused the ruling junta of trying to push through a new constitution designed to limit democracy.

[...] after a series of political upheavels, during which Thaksin fled the country, new elections were held in 2011 that also were won by Thaksin's party led by his sister, who became the prime minister.

[...] her government was removed in a 2014 coup by the military, which is now drafting a constitution that allows for an unelected prime minister and proposes giving wide powers to the Constitutional Court and appointing an unelected Senate.

Thaksin, 66, said he speaks to Yingluck "quite often, but everyone knows this is the only case in the world" where a prime minister has been prosecuted over a policy, which has effectively banned her from politics for five years.