“I’ll let him talk. He has been talking for so long so let him. I will listen but not take it seriously if it doesn’t mean anything,” said Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said, referring to renowned political scientist Seksan Prasertkul’s recent remark about current politics. “I keep my eyes open every day on who says what. But staying for another 10 years? How could that happen?”

The mechanisms underway would certainly lead to an election in 2018, Prayut said at a press briefing after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

His remark came in response to the remarks of Seksan, a former student leader and notable social critic. At Thammasat University’s Direk Jayanama Research Centre’s annual seminar on Monday, he said current politics and the “4.0 society” promoted by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) were systematically setting the foundations for so-called “State elites” to remain deeply entrenched in the political sphere.

Another junta key leader, Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan agree with Prayut in rejecting Seksan’s analysis, adding that the “roadmap to democracy” would lead to an election in 2018.

However, Prawit did not rule out the possibility that the NCPO could transform into another political structure, such as the selected Senate.

“That is another story,” he said.

At the same time, he dismissed the idea that he personally would set up a political party. “How could I? No, I won’t. I’m too old. I’m done when this is done.”