Lawyer For Thaksin Calls For Elections In Thailand

via Khmer NZ News Media

Thursday June 24, 2010

(RTTNews) - A lawyer for Thailand's ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has called on the government to hold fresh elections soon to prove it has the mandate of the public after protests left 90 dead in the nation's capital, Bangkok.

Robert Amsterdam, representing Thaksin, said the government's handling of the "Red Shirt" protests showed it did not have the support of the people, and feared the return of Thaksin.

The 'Red Shirts' rally was broken up May 19 in an army crackdown on their vast camp in the heart of Bangkok. Weeks of violent clashes and the final military assault left 90 perons dead, including some foreign mediapersons, and nearly 1,900 injured.

The term of present Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ends next November, and Thai officials have hinted it is unlikely that elections will be held this year as the government does not want to rush into elections before dealing with the deep social divisions that sparked the clashes.

Amsterdam, who was in Tokyo to seek Japan's support for an investigation into the causes of the violence, in which a Japanese journalist was killed, described the "no-elections- this-year" proposal "outrageous", and demanded that elections be held soon.

The London-based lawyer also termed the Thai government's issuance of an arrest warrant for Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, on charges of terrorism as a tactical mistake.

"I think they made a serious mistake in calling him a terrorist," Amsterdam said, adding: "I think they have reduced their chances of any country extraditing him" because of the possibility of a death penalty that the charges carry.

Now living in self-exile in Europe, Thaksin faces charges of corruption and abuse of power but still commands a strong following, mainly in rural areas, because of his populist policies.

The pro-Thaksin Red Shirt movement, comprising urban and rural poor, democracy activists and politicians, demands the holdling of fresh elections in the Buddhist South-East Asian country.

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