CAAI News Media
Published: Sept. 23, 2009
BANGKOK, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A general election at this time could lead to more social unrest, acting Thai Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said after weekend anti-government demonstrations in the capital.
"The House will be dissolved and a general election called only after rules acceptable to all parties have been put in place," Suthep told local media.
His statement comes after a tense weekend of largely peaceful demonstrations in Bangkok by supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. At the same time there was a health scare for the country's octogenarian monarch who remains in hospital, according to a report in the Bangkok Post newspaper.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, and the world's longest-reigning monarch, has been in Bangkok's Siriraj Hospital since Saturday night. Hospital officials said the king's health is not in danger, but he is fatigued and has had a fever and loss of appetite. No date has been set for his leaving hospital.
Among his visitors has been the former wife of the deposed Thaksin who was toppled in a coup in September 2006, media reported.
The constitutional monarch has reigned for 63 years, and many Thais view him as a unifying figure not adverse to criticizing coups and ordering the many military regimes in his time to end brutal repressions. The king warned in August that the country was in danger of total collapse unless the "feuding politicians" settle their differences.
However, Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, the leader of the 2006 coup against Thaksin, told Thai media that the people welcomed the military government takeover and the setting up of the Council for National Security. He said he would oppose any changes to the current constitution if they were done "to further the selfish interests of politicians."
Sonthi made his comments after Thaksin's supporters took to the streets Saturday night to demonstrate against the third anniversary of the coup.
Thaksin, who won two record election victories in 2001 and 2005, is often credited with improving the financial situation of the poor. More importantly, some analysts have claimed, he gave the poor, particularly the rural poor, a voice in national politics that they did not easily relinquish after the 2006 military coup.
But Thaksin, 61, remains in exile overseas, now believed to be in the United Arab Emirates, after being found guilty of corruption and sentenced to three years in jail. He spent some time in the United Kingdom where he was until last year owner of Britain's Manchester City football club. But he sold the team to Arab investors amid the club's financial collapse due to his millions of dollars worth of assets being frozen.
Thaksin's supporters in the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the so-called red shirts, have in the past battled police and the army on the streets. Several people were injured and vehicles burned in Bangkok in April.
They have also clashed heavily with the yellow-shirted supporters of Thaksin's sworn enemies, the People's Alliance for Democracy led by Sondhi Limthongkul. Unidentified gunmen sprayed the chauffeur-driven car of Sondhi in an assassination attempt in April.
Demonstrations on the weekend by around 4,000 of the largely pro-government yellow shirts on the Thai border with Cambodia ended in clashes with Thai police, according to a report by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The protest surrounded a long-running sovereignty dispute over the 11th century Preah Vihear temple complex that straddles the boundary and has been the scene of deadly shootings between Cambodian and Thai troops in recent months. The temple is recognized internationally as being Cambodian.
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