Voting began in Thailand this morning in the country’s first election since the military ousted an elected government in a 2014 coup.

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. About 51 million people are eligible to vote.

Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule have urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Prayuth’s plans.

The polls follow five years of military rule that began with a coup during a long-running battle for power between supporters and opponents of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by an earlier coup in 2006.

The military government in 2014 had promised to hold elections in 2015, which were later postponed many times.