Ousted Thai leader Thaksin quits party

Bangkok, Oct 3 (UNI) Ousted Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra today quit his party, which gave Thailand its first full-term parliamentary government on its own.

The party, however, now faces extinction with scores of senior leaders leaving in the wake of the September 19 military takeover.

Mr Thaksin, who is in London, sent a letter resigning from the Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) party which he founded in the late 1990s and led to three successive wins in national elections in 2001, 2005 and 2006.

Earlier, an important faction of the Thai Rak Thai comprising 100 members of the dissolved parliament, quit the party. Senior members of the ousted caretaker government have also quit the party.

The resignations have been triggered by an announcement by the military coup leaders, now known as the Council for National Security (CNS), that executive members of a political party which is dissolved for electoral law violations, would be banned from political activities for five years.

Both, the Thai Rak Thai and the main opposition, Democrat Party, are facing court trials for infringing electoral laws during April 2 snap national poll which was later annulled by the judiciary.

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