Thailand opposition urges delay to elections Skip to main content

Thailand opposition urges delay to elections

Thailand's opposition leader and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva speaks during a news conference at a hotel in Bangkok, 3 May 2014 Abhisit Vejjajiva said the government should step down and be replaced with an interim cabinet

Related Stories

The leader of Thailand's opposition has called for elections scheduled for July to be pushed back by up to six months.

In a 10-point package of proposals, Abhisit Vejjajiva said the prime minister and her government should resign, allowing an interim cabinet to oversee a referendum on reforms.
A government minister has rejected the proposals as unconstitutional.

Thailand has been in political deadlock since anti-government protests began in Bangkok in November 2013.

Ms Yingluck's government announced the 20 July polls after a previous snap election in February was declared unconstitutional.

The ruling Pheu Thai party had been expected to win the February vote. However, the opposition boycotted the polls and protesters disrupted voting.

At the height of the anti-government demonstrations, protesters shut down key road junctions and blockaded government ministries. Their number has since declined.
'Breathing space'
File photo: A member of the pro-government "red shirt" group holds a picture of Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra during a rally in Nakhon Pathom province on the outskirts of Bangkok, 5 April 2014 Ms Yingluck's supporters have held rallies showing their support for the government
 
On Saturday, Mr Abhisit said his opposition Democrat party would not contest July's polls.

Analysis

image of Jonathan Head  
Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok
 
Abhisit Vejjajiva says he wants to help Thailand avoid a slide into violence with his 10-point plan. But there will be strong objections.

First he is offering this as an all-or-nothing package. No discussion. If the government does not like it, he will abandon it.

Second he wants the prime minister and her cabinet to resign immediately, before next week's expected verdict by the Constitutional Court on one of the cases against her. It is very unlikely her side would take such a step so quickly, if at all.

Third, there will be legal objections to Ms Yingluck's replacement by an appointed prime minister, even for just a few months, as unconstitutional and undemocratic.

Mr Abhisit also wants his proposed reform council to include the hard-line People's Democratic Reform Committee anti-government movement, but not the government's own supporters.

"We need breathing space, we need a cooling down period before we go to elections, given the kind of violence that is happening around the country," he told the BBC.

"In my discussions with the Election Commission, with other political parties, none of them seriously believes that we can head into elections [in July] and get an outcome different from what happened earlier in the year," he added.

However, Education Minister Chaturon Chaiseng told the BBC Mr Abhisit's proposals were unconstitutional, and impossible for the government to accept.

The idea of appointing an unelected government would have the same effect as launching a military coup, he added.

Jarupong Ruangsuwan, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai party, also told Reuters the plan would "only increase divisions in Thai society".

The main proposals in the opposition's 10-point plan are:
  • July's planned elections are delayed. A reform council drafts a plan of reforms, which are sent for a national referendum
  • The current government resigns and a non-partisan interim government is appointed
  • Following the national referendum, new elections are held
  • The new elected government must carry out the reform plans. A fresh election will then be held within a year
Mr Abhisit acknowledged that he and his Democrat party were partly responsible for the political mess Thailand was in, and said he was offering a way out, the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok reports.

Ms Yingluck faces a court verdict next week which could result in her being barred from politics for five years, a result her supporters say they would view as tantamount to a coup, our correspondent adds.

Ms Yingluck and Pheu Thai remain very popular in rural areas.

However, her opponents, who are mainly urban and middle class, allege that her brother, ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra, controls her administration.

They also say that Thailand's democracy has been corrupted by money.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27266426
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more