THAILAND: Thousands of supporters of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra supporters attend a rally to counter an intense campaign to oust him

Record ID: 214291

  • Title: THAILAND: Thousands of supporters of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra supporters attend a rally to counter an intense campaign to oust him
  • Date: 5th March 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Thai) THAKSIN SAYING: "If less than half of the voters vote for me, or more than half the actual turnout cast abstention votes or vote for other parties, I won't be the prime minister. I am willing to withdraw, if the Thai people do not want me."
  • Embargoed: 20th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3UN8S8TSEXDI2SPFT3S341548
  • Story Text: Thousands of supporters of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra poured into Bangkok from around the country on Friday (March 3) to pack a huge rally to counter an intense campaign to oust him.
    Police said around 200,000 people were massed in the Sanam Luang rally ground in front of the glittering Grand Palace as leaders of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party started lashing his foes.
    Many had arrived in caravans of buses from as far away as Thaksin's home town of Chiang Mai 700 km (435 miles) to the north.
    Thaksin's rally was designed in part to demonstrate his support in the countryside where 70 percent of Thais live.
    Thaksin told his supporters that he would to go ahead with a snap poll, but offered opposition parties political reform and appealed to them to abandon their election boycott.
    The main opposition party said Thaksin had not gone far enough to end a political crisis which has grown rapidly since relatives sold the business empire he founded for a tax-free $1.9 billion in January to a Singapore state firm.
    But Thaksin's supporters think he is doing a good job. "About the Prime Minister - I don't think he has anything to do with the corruption. About his Shin Corp shares, it's all his own business. I came here today because he works for Thais, we can see he does a good job fulfilling his duties. So, I just came to support him in the continuation of his work," said one supporter, Sakda Thairat, who voted for Thai Rak Thai last election.
    "Those who love me they gonna love me, those who don't like me, they'll not gonna like me but some people who misunderstood is time for them to reconsider," Thaksin before mounting the podium to address the crowd.
    Thaksin told the huge crowd of supporters that he would adopt political reforms within 15 months of the April 2 election, then call another.
    If a majority of people who did turn out rejected him or cast abstentions, an option on Thai ballots, he would step down.
    "If less than half of the voters vote for me, or more than half the actual turnout cast abstention votes or vote for other parties, I won't be the prime minister," he told his supporters.
    But the Democrats Party, which along with the Chart Thai and Mahachon parties have turned down several Thaksin overtures this week, were unimpressed.
    Thaksin also appealed for national unity, saying political disruption could undermine this year's celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the coronation of Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest serving monarch.
    The prime minister said he was willing to talk to the leaders of an extra-parliamentary campaign against him, the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), but there was no immediate sign of them taking him up on the offer.
    The PAD has vowed to take followers on street marches if Thaksin did not resign by Sunday, when it hopes to draw hundreds of thousands of people the latest in a string of its own rallies, which have drawn mainly people from Bangkok.
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