Bangkok - The vote for Thailand's next premier at an extraordinary session of parliament on Monday will be very close with the outcome still far from certain, politicians predicted Sunday.
Parliament will reconvene to vote on the 27th prime minister, now a toss-up between Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and Puea Paendin party leader Police General Pracha Promnok.
Democrats claim to have secured some 260 of the 438 seats in the Lower House, enough to win Abhisit, 44, the premiership, but the real numbers will not be known until after the vote Monday morning.
"It will be a close call," predicted Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior member of the Democrat party.
Bangkok - Thousands of Thais sporting red shirts gathered Saturday at the Suphachalasai Stadium in Bangkok to show their support for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who planned to address the rally by teleconference.
About 10,000 Thaksin followers gathered at the stadium by Saturday afternoon and more were pouring in for the event, the highlight of which would be a phone-in from their beloved leader, from "a country close by," according to organizers.
Thaksin, who has been living in self exile since August and faces a two-year jail term in Thailand for abuse of power when he was premier in 2003, addressed a similar audience on November 13 of an estimated 60,000 followers.
Bangkok- Thailand's foreign ministry has issued a protest letter to the Economist magazine about two articles that appeared in its December 6-12 issue on the sensitive topic of the Thai monarchy, officials said Friday.
"The letter will appear in the next issue of the Economist," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat, who penned the letter.
Although the magazine was not officially banned, Thai distributors of last week's Economist did not import the issue which contained two articles on the monarchy under the titled "A right royal mess" and "The King and them."
Bangkok - Thai opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday pledged to try to host the 14th ASEAN summit in early February if he is elected prime minister next week.
Thailand, which was scheduled to host the 14th summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations on December 15-18, had to postpone the annual event until March because of political chaos in Bangkok.
Bangkok - Thailand in 2008 went to the brink of a bloodbath in Bangkok over what amounts to a deep difference of opinion within Thai society on what people want from the democratic process.
The political showdown peaked with the seizure and closure of Bangkok's two international airports on November 26-December 3 by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - representing the forces of Thailand's traditional guided democracy - in an exercise that cost the country an estimated 3 billion dollars in lost export and tourism revenues.
Bangkok - Thai police have arrested four foreigners, including two British nationals, one German and a US citizen in a crackdown on sexual abuse of minors in Pattaya beach resort, police said Thursday.
"There are foreign nationals and networks facilitating sexual abuse of minors in Thailand so we needed to crack down on the crime," said police Major-General Chaiwat Kaetworachai, commander of Thailand's Prevention of Crimes Against Women and Children police division.
Bangkok- Thailand's foreign ministry has issued a protest letter to the Economist magazine about two articles that appeared in its December 6-12 issue on the sensitive topic of the Thai monarchy, officials said Friday.
Bangkok - Thai police have arrested four foreigners, including two British nationals, one German and a US citizen in a crackdown on sexual abuse of minors in Pattaya beach resort, police said Thursday.
