Thaksin ex-wife 'visiting mother'

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A spokesman for exiled Thai politician Thaksin Shinawatra has said that his ex-wife is visiting Thailand to see her ailing mother.

Pojaman Shinawatra flew into Bangkok on Friday nearly four months after fleeing abroad to avoid a conviction for tax evasion.

A spokesman for the couple, who reportedly divorced in November, said she had no plans to engage in politics.

Police did not arrest her because of an ongoing appeal against her conviction.

Pojaman, who was married to Thaksin for 32 years, flew into Bangkok's international airport from the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

The airport returned to full operations on Friday after anti-government protesters raised their week-long blockade of it and Bangkok's domestic airport. However, an airport public relations official warned that it could be at least a month before traffic was back to normal.

The protesters, who regard the government as a proxy for Thaksin, withdrew after a court banned Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from politics and dissolved his People Power Party.

Thailand's opposition Democrat Party said on Saturday it had gained enough support in parliament to form a new government.

'No politics'

Pojaman was whisked away from the airport after her arrival.

"She comes home to visit her mother, who is ill and will have a surgery," Pongthep Thepkanchana, who has been speaking on behalf of the former couple, told Reuters news agency.

The spokesman denied that Pojaman had arrived to influence the People Power Party's successor, the Puea Thai party, which is due to pick a leader on Sunday.

"[She] doesn't want to be involved in politics," the spokesman said.

"Puea Thai party has a process to choose its leader. Certainly, it has nothing to do with her."

Pojaman was found guilty last July of evading tax of 546m baht ($16.3m) in a 1997 shares transfer in the family telecoms business.

In October, Thaksin was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison in his absence.

No reasons were given for the couple's separation and Thaksin's current whereabouts are unclear.

Thailand's Democrat Party believes it can now muster enough MPs to form a coalition government.

"The Democrats are offering to lead a new coalition with the support of five parties, and we are open to more people joining us," said party spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks.