Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to make a one-week
private trip to seven European and Asian countries to brief his
hosts on a constitutional crisis in the country.
Thaksin, who announced a decision not to seek another term after
an April 2 snap election, planned to make short stops in Britain,
France, Russia, Japan, China and the Philippines from Monday to
Sunday.
"I will meet their leaders. They should be keen to know about
developments here...They should want to know the facts because
reading newspapers must have been confusing," Thaksin told
reporters. He did not say which government leaders he would meet
during the trip.
After his move to step down, Thaksin handed over day-to-day
administrative work to Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister
Chidchai Vanasatidya.
Thailand may need to hold a third round of parliamentary
elections following boycotts, ballot destruction and an apparently
wholesale rejection Sunday of ruling party candidates in the
country's insurgency-wracked southern provinces, officials
said.
Sunday's election, the country's third in as many weeks, took
place in 40 constituencies to fill seats left vacant in earlier
polls.
An initial assessment of the balloting showed that in at least
10 constituencies candidates of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party who
ran unopposed failed to gain the 20 percent minimum vote needed to
win, said Ekachai Warrunprapa, secretary-general of the Election
Commission.
(China Daily April 24, 2006)
