Wrangling Thai parties announce rival govts

Wrangling Thai parties announce rival govts

BANGKOK (Agencies): Thailand's squabbling political parties
announced they were forming two rival governments yesterday to
replace the outgoing administration of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.

The rival groups made their announcements within minutes of
each other at press conferences broadcast live on television.
Each group is led by a former premier.

The first coalition of five parties will be headed by ex-
premier Chatichai Choonhavan. The other group is dominated by the
opposition Democrat Party headed by ex-prime minister Chuan
Leekpai.

The speaker of parliament, Wan Mohammed Noor, has said he
would decide Monday which candidate presented by all the parties
has the most support to be named premier.

Chavalit was due to see the monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej
yesterday to hand in his resignation. It was to take effect from
midnight but he was expected to stay on as caretaker premier.

The core members of Chavalit's coalition held a news
conference yesterday evening where they asserted they would form
a new government. At roughly the same time, members of a proposed
coalition built around the opposition Democrats made the same
claim.

According to several accounts, however, the Democrats still
did not have enough firm commitments to give them a majority, and
were wooing more support. The Democrats themselves claimed to
have garnered only 194 or 195 seats, short of the 197 needed for
a majority.

According to announcements made yesterday by spokesmen for the
different parties, those aligned with the Democrats -- the second
biggest party in the House -- were fellow opposition parties
Chart Thai and Solidarity, and defecting government parties
Social Action and Seritham.

That lineup gave the Democrats 194 seats. They also claimed to
have the support of the Palang Dharma Party, which would bring
them up to 195.

The shortfall could be overcome with the recruitment of the
government Muanchon Party, with two seats, whose leader is a
controversial and mercurial former police officer.

The government coalition was claiming to control 198 seats.
Chavalit was scheduled to meet with King Bhumibol Adulyadej last
night, when he was expected to present the constitutional monarch
with a new prime minister and government lineup.

But the negotiations among the three largest political parties
vying to lead a new government had been so difficult that
Chavalit said late Wednesday he may have to continue as an
interim prime minister for another seven days to nine days if no
new leader was found, a government aide said.

King Bhumibol, meanwhile, was receiving a routine medical
checkup yesterday morning at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok. The 69-
year-old monarch suffers from heart problems, and Wednesday one
of his physicians pleaded with politicians to end their
bickering, saying it was affecting the king's health.

Local papers reported yesterday, however, that Crown Princess
Sirindhorn said her father was not experiencing any serious
health problems.

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