Thais vote in Dec. regardless of charter vote-Sonthi

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

BANGKOK, July 31 (Reuters) Thailand's post-coup general election will take place in December even if voters reject a draft constitution in a referendum next month, coup leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said today.

''Elections will definitely be held at the end of this year no matter what happens to the charter in the August 19 referendum,'' Sonthi, who ousted elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year, told a Bangkok radio station.

Thaksin, who lives in exile in London, has urged voters to reject the military-sponsored draft charter, calling it ''fruit of the poisonous tree'' and a ''step back'' for democracy.

''If voters reject the 2007 constitution, and the (military) is forced to use the constitution that they already tore up, that is going to be something,'' Thaksin told the Financial Times in an interview published yesterday.

''Democracy will come back to Thailand.'' If the charter were rejected, Sonthi said, the 1997 ''People's Constitution'' would be amended and used for an election the military-appointed government has promised for Dec. 16 or 23.

Most politicians and analysts agreed the new charter would signal the end of strong, single-party government and a return to the constantly collapsing coalitions that typified the 1990s.

Critics say politicians would also be suborned by the increased power of judges and bureaucrats, such as happened during the ''managed democracy'' of the 1980s under army chief Prem Tinsulanonda, now the king's chief adviser and seen by the Thaksin camp as masterminding the Sept. 19 coup.

REUTERS ARB BD1459

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X