Thai PM Eyes Election Within Six Months

Jakarta Globe, February 09, 2011

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Thailand will hold a general election in the first half of this year if there is no fresh political violence, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Wednesday.

“My government will not complete its term at the end of 2011 but will organise elections in the first half of this year if it resolves three issues,” he told a forum of investors in Bangkok, according to a statement released by his office. The event was closed to the media.

He said two of these — a strong economy and constitutional amendment — appeared to have been fulfilled, so the last remaining condition was that any election must be held in peaceful conditions.

The British-born, Oxford-educated head of the establishment Democrat Party must dissolve parliament by the end of this year for polls.

He has previously said the elections could take place early in 2011 if the security situation improved.

Mass protests in April and May of last year by the “Red Shirt” movement, which is broadly loyal to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, left 90 people dead in street clashes between demonstrators and the army.

The Reds, who where campaigning for immediate elections, have held a series of peaceful one-day rallies in the capital in recent weeks. 

Agence France-Presse