Thai election set for July 3: government

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Thai election set for July 3: government
Source: AFP News. 2011-05-09

BANGKOK, May 9, 2011 (AFP) - Thailand's general election will be held on July 3 after the king endorsed a royal decree to dissolve the lower house, the government spokesman said Monday.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the head of the elite-backed Democrat Party whose term finishes at the end of this year, submitted a royal decree to King Bhumibol Adulyadej last week to allow an early election to go ahead.

"The king has endorsed the royal decree to dissolve the house today and it will come into effect tomorrow. The election will be held on 3 July," spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told a press conference.

By law, polls must be held between 45 and 60 days after house dissolution.

British-born, Oxford-educated Abhisit is gambling on early polls to propel him to a second term and silence critics who say he has no popular mandate.

Spokesman Panitan said the premier would release a pre-recorded message later Monday, in which he would "explain to the public the reasons for dissolving parliament and tell people about what the government has done in the past two years".

He said the government would continue working between the dissolution of the house and election day.

Abhisit's party -- the country's oldest, with a support base in Bangkok and the south -- has not won a general election in nearly two decades and faces a struggle to cling to power, even with the support of its coalition partners.

Abhisit took office in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court ruling threw out the previous administration, and he is accused by his political foes of being an unelected puppet of the military and the establishment.

The vote comes at a politically sensitive time for Thailand, which remains deeply divided a year after an army crackdown on opposition protests in the capital, during which clashes left 90 people dead, mostly civilians.

Parties affiliated to fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra have won the most seats in the past four elections, but the former tycoon was toppled in a 2006 coup and courts reversed the results of the last two polls.