Thai army chief rules out military takeover of government

Thailand's powerful army chief today said the caretaker government would not be ousted even if the military disagrees with it, as the Thai capital braced itself for massive rallies by anti-government protesters and the pro-regime 'Red Shirts' on Saturday.
General Prayuth Chan-ocha said the government can't be ousted "just as employees cannot oust company executives if they disagreed with them," before going in for a four-hour meeting of the military top brass to discuss the country's political situation.
Anti-government demonstrators, who have been protesting since November last year, have demanded that embattled premier Yingluck Shinawatra should step down and a people's council be elected to carry out reforms before elections are held.

Meanwhile, Jatuporn Promphan, the chairman of the pro-government United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship, said that about 500,000 Red Shirts will join a mass rally in Bangkok on Saturday.
He said the rally would be just a rehearsal for a bigger mass rally whose date has yet to be set.
Also today, 53 political parties urged the Election Commission (EC) to quickly hold a general election after the February 2 poll was invalidated by the constitution court.

Suratin Picharn, leader of the New Democracy Party, and representatives from smaller parties, petitioned the body for an urgently organised election in 45-60 days as ruled by the constitution court and said the EC should return registration fees to candidates in the nullified election of February 2.

He said the EC should invite 73 existing political parties to discuss and set a new balloting date, instead of waiting until its original April 22 schedule.
Suratin said two rival factions - the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee and the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship - should be invited to the meeting.
Pantongtae Shinawatra, caretaker premier Yingluck's nephew and son of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, has proposed that an interim prime minister be elected to carry out reforms saying he saw this as a way of compromising with Suthep Thaugsuban, the secretary general of the PDRC.
He said most people would definitely not accept the choice of an interim prime minister proposed by Suthep.

"We should have a process to elect a prime minister to work for a short period during the reforms. When the reforms are complete, he or she will call an election in which the opposition Democrats would take part and the country could move forward," Pantongtae said.
Thailand has been in political turmoil since mass rallies began in November with protesters demanding the ouster of Yingluck's government.
The protesters accuse Yingluck of acting as a proxy for her fugitive brother, former premier Thaksin, who was ousted in a coup in 2006.