In addition to limitations on civil liberties implemented by the NCPO, the most persistent human rights problems were abuses by government security forces and local defense volunteers in the continuing Malay-Muslim insurgency in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani, and one district of Songkhla; and occasional excessive use of force by security forces (police and military), including harassing or abusing criminal suspects, detainees, and prisoners. After the May 2014 coup, citizens no longer had the ability to choose their government through the right to vote in free and fair elections.
