THAILAND: Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has conceded that he might be forced to dissolve parliament and call a snap election if the mounting pressure on him to step down intensifies.
The comments - relayed by a government spokesman on national television yesterday - came a day after the premier's former political mentor, Chamlong Sri-muang, publicly called for Mr Thaksin to resign, citing his "loss of legitimacy".
"Thai people . . . are up in arms like never before," Mr Chamlong was quoted as saying by Thai newspapers yesterday.
"They are speaking in unison that the prime minister has lost legitimacy."
Surapong Suebwonglee, the government spokesman, told Channel 3 television that the premier has rejected the calls for him to quit, despite the furore over his family's Bt73 billion (€1.59 billion) sale of Shin Corp, the company he founded, to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
But Mr Surapong said Mr Thaksin had told an emergency cabinet meeting on Sunday night that he could dissolve parliament and call fresh elections three years ahead of schedule to ease the mounting political tensions.
"The prime minister said he would certainly not resign," the spokesman said.
"But if he was put into a situation where he had to make any decision, he would dissolve parliament."
The Shinawatras' sale of Shin Corp has sparked an unexpected uproar in Bankgok, with Mr Thaksin criticised for his conduct in office and suspected of involvement in the decision to sell.
But a year after Mr Thaksin won a landslide re-election victory, many analysts believe that the premier's strong rural support - and the weakness of the opposition - would still result in a comfortable victory for his ruling Thai Rak Thai party if fresh elections were called. Mr Surapong said Mr Thaksin had not yet reached the "dead end" that would require such a step.
The premier also won an important legal reprieve last week, when the constitutional court decided not to launch a formal probe into his relations with Shin Corp.
However, some foreign investors see a growing likelihood of a snap election as more prominent Thai opinion makers publicly oppose Mr Thaksin's leadership.
"It's going to be very difficult for him to operate on a status quo basis," said one market analyst. "The rising pressure in all these people jumping up and down is going to have an impact. The government's time is going to be frittered away on crisis responses."
Mr Chamlong's decision to break publicly with his one-time protege - and his call for his followers to join a planned anti-Thaksin demonstration on Sunday - is certainly a fresh worry for the government.
A teetotaller general who led a 1992 "people power" revolt against the then military government and also founded the now defunct Moral Force party, Mr Chamlong appeals to Thai public aspirations for clean politics and has a proven ability to mobilise a crowd.