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Thai army calls for new elections | Thai army calls for new elections |
(10 minutes later) | |
The head of Thailand's powerful army has asked the government to dissolve parliament and call new elections. | |
Gen Anupong Paochinda denied the move amounted to a coup, and also called on anti-government protesters to withdraw from Bangkok's international airport. | |
Members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took over the airport on Tuesday, after months of protests. | |
It was the PAD's most dramatic move so far after months of calling for the government to resign. | |
It is unclear where Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who was due to return to Thailand on Wednesday from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru, now is. | |
However, Gen Anupong said the government was still in control. | |
"This is not a coup," he told a news conference. | |
"The government still has full authority. These points are the way to solve the problem which has plunged the country into a deep crisis," Gen Anupong said. | |
The protesters, who have also been occupying a government compound in the capital, claim that the government is corrupt and hostile to the monarchy. | The protesters, who have also been occupying a government compound in the capital, claim that the government is corrupt and hostile to the monarchy. |
They also accused it of being a proxy for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military 2006 coup, but who critics say is still very influential. | |
The PAD is a loose grouping of royalists, businessmen and the urban middle-class opposed to Mr Thaksin. | |
The BBC's Jonathan Head, in Bangkok, says that the government had appeared to have adopted a strategy of allowing the PAD to attack government buildings while avoiding clashes, in the hope that it could wear the protesters down. |