OPPONENTS of Thailand’s junta launched a campaign to restore democracy and “oppose the military dictatorship and its aristocratic network” today.

Jarupong Ruangsuwan, chairman of the Puea Thai Party, which led the government ousted by the military, said in an open letter that the military council had no legitimacy and cast doubt on its promise to transfer power back to civilian authorities.

The military’s aim, he said, was to create “a new puppet structure whose sole purpose will be to re-entrench anti-democratic elements into Thailand’s body politic and to sabotage the development of Thai democracy.”

“Any such structure will need to be removed before a more democratic and civilised society can be built,” he added.

His movement, the letter said, sought to “establish the people’s complete and unchallenged sovereignty.”

Thailand has been locked into a power struggle between elected populist governments and the royalist establishment backed by the army and the middle class in Bangkok.

Former president Thaksin Shinawatra is adored by the poor in the rural north and north-east because of policies such as cheap healthcare and village development that raised their living standards while he was in office from 2001.

He was toppled in a coup in 2006, but parties led by or loyal to him have won every election since 2001.

It was unclear what methods Mr Ruangsuwan’s movement, the Organisation of Free Thais for Human Rights and Democracy, would use to oppose the junta.