Thai Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha has given a press conference in Bangkok, describing the government's plans for political transition leading to elections.

Thai and international media registering for this press conference with the Thai prime minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha. It is a relatively rare event. General Prayuth has a prickly relationship with the media since he came to power in a military coup in 2014. And you can see here the impact that coup has had on the Thai government which remains dominated by military men in all of its senior positions. that said, the military men have had the endorsement of the hair public in a referendum in which their hand written constitution was endorsed. And that may have given them some confidence. We've seen in the last couple of days the relaxation of some of their more authoritarian rules that have been in place since the coup. We’re not entirely sure why we've been called here today, but we expect general Prayuth to outline his plans to return Thailand to a democratic process.

"What we are doing in the second phase of the roadmap is reforming the structure of government management for the purpose of wealth generation, security and continuity," said Prayuth Chan-ocha.

"The mission of this government in the next year will be the third part of the roadmap, which will be transferring the responsibility of reform and transition to the new government after elections, and will upgrade us to be a developed country."

"Even though the National Council for Peace and Order and the government are trying to do good things, solve problems, and reform, some people are creating misunderstanding and divisions amongst the people, not just Thais but foreigners as well, using the excuse of democracy and human rights," said Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Not surprisingly the Thai government giving itself full marks for its performance over the past 2 years. Perhaps independent commentators may have some issues with that particularly one one mic performance but the real issue is going to be whether the government can get us to elections which are shcheduled to take place in early 2018 and whether they can overcome e any obstacles between now and then.