Thai government, protesters reject army's plea for new elections

Army chief Anupong Paochinda also pledged he would not launch a coup only two years after the military removed Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister.

 

At a news conference in Bangkok, he told the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protest movement to end its crippling siege of Bangkok's international airport and cease its anti-government campaign.Â

 

"The prime minister should dissolve parliament and call a snap election," Anupong said in outlining a four-point plan to end political crisis now in its fourth year.

 

Anupong and other top military brass made a similar intervention on national television last month, fuelling frenzied speculation of another military takeover in the coup-prone country. Now, as then, the government dismissed the idea.

 

"The prime minister has said many times that he will not quit or dissolve parliament because he has been democratically elected. That still stands," government spokesman Nattawut Saikuar told Channel 3 television.

 

PAD spokesman Suriyasai Katasila also rejected the plan. "We won't pull out, we won't leave if Somchai does not quit," he was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters.

 

Somchai, whom the PAD accuse of being a puppet of Thaksin, his brother-in-law, landed in the northern city of Chiang Mai on his return from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru, TPBS TV said.

 

Thai media reports speculated he may declare a state of emergency in Bangkok, where the PAD stormed Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday night, stranding thousands of travellers after airport officials cancelled all flights.

 

The protesters had tightened their grip over the airport on Wednesday causing chaos in the terminal and triggering speculation of imminent intervention by the military.

The leader of the protesters, Sondhi Limthongul, had rejected a government offer of talks to end the airport blockade.