Thai opposition parties to boycott snap poll

By Nopporn Wong-Anan

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s three opposition parties
said on Monday they would boycott snap elections on April 2,
deepening a political crisis sparked by increasingly strident
calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

“The Chart Thai, Democrat and Mahachon parties agreed
unanimously that we will not field candidates in this
election,” Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrats, the
largest opposition party, told reporters after a joint meeting.

Thaksin’s offer to push parties to come up with proposals
for changes to the 1997 constitution as part of their April
election campaigns was empty as it could not guarantee results,
Abhisit said.

“We will not participate in a process which does not
guarantee political reform,” he said.

With or without the boycott, Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais
Love Thais) party is expected to win the April vote
comfortably. Without a boycott, it was expected to win a
smaller majority than the 377 out of 500 parliamentary seats it
had a year ago.

Thaksin says he is taking the constitutional path to
resolve the crisis by calling an election and his party accused
the opposition of betraying democracy by contemplating a
boycott.

“It is each party’s decision. We’ve done our best. I’ve
done my best. However, I don’t foresee any problem,” Thaksin
said after the election boycott announcement.

But it looks likely to bolster the six-month anti-Thaksin
campaign, led by critics who accuse him of abuses of power and
tailoring government policies to benefit his family’s business
interests.

Since the end of January, the protesters have been lifted
by moral outrage among Bangkok’s middle-classes at the $1.9
billion tax-free sale by Thaksin’s relatives of their stake in
the telecoms empire he founded.

The baht and stock market have both wobbled in the last few
weeks due to fears the political fight might end up on the
streets of a country with a long and relatively recent history
of military coups.

DHARMA ARMY ON THE MARCH

Thaksin won a second consecutive landslide election 12
months ago but has seen his popularity wane under accusations
of undermining constitutional checks and balances.

His relatives’ sale of Shin Corp, the telecommunications
empire he founded, fueled middle-class outrage to the point
that Thaksin was forced to call a snap election three years
early.

But his support in the countryside, where 70 percent of
Thais live, is thought to be still solid.

As workers cleaned up after an anti-government rally on
Sunday, which police said peaked at 50,000 people — the
largest crowd of its kind in 14 years — hundreds of “Dharma
Army” monks led a Buddhist prayer vigil on Bangkok’s Sanam
Luang parade ground.

Their leader, Chamlong Srimuang, an ascetic 70-year-old
general who led a successful but bloody 1992 “people power”
uprising against a military government, urged people to join
him and keep up the pressure on Thaksin.

“We will be here until the job gets done,” Chamlong told
reporters in written answers to questions, saying he had lost
his voice. “The only way to get us out of Sanam Luang is to see
Thaksin resign.

“Our unit will seize this area to keep the rally going
around the clock,” Chamlong, who earned his spurs fighting
communists in Laos and Vietnam during the Vietnam War, said in
a written answer to Reuters.

He then grabbed a microphone and exhorted his followers in
strident tones not to sneak off for a shower or much-needed
sleep. “We have come here to practise our principles — eat
little, consume little and work hard,” he said.

“Why do we have to waste our money on showering elsewhere?
I can bathe with three bowls of water and I believe our
brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews can too.”

(Additional reporting by Trirat Puttajanyawong)