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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