Anxiety over ousted Thai leader's speech

Thaksin - still powerful despite being ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption - hopes to head off a government led by his rivals with a telephone address to tens of thousands of supporters Saturday.

Thailand's Parliament is to meet Monday to elect a new prime minister amid hopes that it will put at least a temporary end to chaos which has paralyzed the government for six months and climaxed in a weeklong siege of Bangkok's two airports.

Nattawut Sai-kua, a government spokesman and an organizer of Saturday's event, said Thaksin would accuse the powerful military and other forces of intervening in politics and destroying the democratic process.

"They are trying to fix who should be the next prime minister," he said.

The Democrats say they have enlisted enough lawmakers from other parties to form a parliamentary majority and name their leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister of a new government.

"Mr. Thaksin is a very powerful man. His speech might create deeper divisions among Thais and stir up more turmoil in the country. It depends on his conscience," Democrat Party spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks told The Associated Press.

But he said the party was still confident that Abhisit, an Oxford-educated politician from an upper class background, would emerge as the country's leader. He said Thaksin made daily calls last week to woo former supporters who had defected to the Democrats but was unsuccessful.

Last week, a court forced Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat to step down and disbanded his pro-Thaksin People's Power Party for fraud in last year's general elections.

The new leader will be Thailand's fifth prime minister in a little over two years. The country has been deadlocked politically by months of protests by an anti-government alliance.

The alliance, which accused Somchai's government of being a Thaksin puppet, called off its protests after last week's court decision.

Thaksin, a former telecommunications magnate who has been living in exile in the United Arab Emirates, is still supported by many in the impoverished countryside because of his populist policies while in power from 2001 to 2006. More than $2 billion of his family's assets have been frozen pending the outcome of corruption cases against him.

Whatever the election outcome, it's unlikely to offer a quick end to the political tug of war.

"I believe Thaksin will put up a fight in order to win the vote because there are so many things at stake here, such as his chance to return to Thailand, confiscation of his assets, his business empire," said Parinya Thewanaruemitkul, a law professor at Bangkok's Thammasat University.

He said a new prime minister would not resolve the current political conflict "because it runs deeper than who should be in the government."

Pro-Thaksin supporters could stage violent protests to rock the new government.

"If the Democrat Party wins the vote on Monday, I think Thai politics will be stable for a short while before the same conflict erupts again," Parinya said.

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