Fueled by Indochina refugee crisis, Vietnamese border raids and economic hardships, Prem Tinsulanonda launched a successful coup and became the Prime Minister from 1980 to 1988. The communists abandoned the insurgency by 1983. Prem's premiership was dubbed "semi-democracy" because the Parliament was composed of all elected House and all appointed Senate. The 1980s also saw increasing intervention in politics by the monarch, who rendered two coup attempts against Prem failed. Thailand had its first elected prime minister in 1988.