Thailand yesterday awaited the results of its first election since a 2014 coup, with the junta primed to retain its grip on power after a vote that saw its main rival diminished but vaulted a new pro-democracy force into the kingdom's politics. Election officials delayed without explanation a full announcement of preliminary results as a blizzard of complaints mounted over apparent mistakes in the count and possible irregularities at the polls.

Nearly 1.9 million votes had been invalidated with 93 percent of votes tallied, the Election Commission said. Earlier counts showed that in a handful of provinces more than half the ballots cast were invalidated. The EC pushed back a preliminary announcement on the number of constituency seats won by each party to late Monday.

"Please wait.. this is Thailand, we are not like other countries who have an election one day and form a government the next," said Jarungvith Phumma, EC secretary-general.

He sidestepped questions over wildly inaccurate poll returns reported late Sunday in several constituencies, as down to "human error".

Sunday's election -- seen as a referendum on the military -- was held under new rules written by the junta to ease its transformation into a civilian government.

Despite that headstart, analysts had not expected the army-linked Phalang Pracharat party to win the popular vote, given anger at junta rule and the enduring popularity of Pheu Thai -- the party of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.