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LEAD: Thai opposition will run in elections if Thaksin quits+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BANGKOK, April 4_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING) Thailand's three main opposition parties, which boycotted weekend snap elections, will run in a fresh general election if Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigns, the leader of one of the parties said Tuesday. "Opposition parties are ready to send candidates to run in new general elections after the political reforms are completed if caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra formally resigns," Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters. "Therefore, we would like to ask the prime minister to make an official announcement as soon as possible," he added. The other two opposition parties are the Chart Thai party and the Mahachon party. On Monday night, Thaksin claimed victory in Sunday's parliamentary election, saying his party won 16 million, or 57 percent, out of 28 million votes cast in the election for the House of Representatives. However, he pledged to set up a reconciliation panel to address his opponents' accusations of corruption and abuse of power. "If the committee advises me to leave, I would do so given that there would be a genuine reconciliation," Thaksin said. Abhisit, however, rejected the proposed reconciliation body as "irrelevant." "We will not need a reconciliation since the prime minister said he would resign...it's all up to him and we need no mediator. Everything will be in accordance with the constitutional process," he said. Earlier Tuesday, Suriyasai Katasila, a core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a loose coalition of anti-Thaksin groups, said at a news conference that it will end street protests if Thaksin resigns. "We are here to assure that once the prime minister makes an announcement to the public that he will resign, the alliance will end rallies immediately," Suriyasai said after a meeting of the group's leaders. "Then we will use other ways and means to ensure that there will be political reforms," he said, reading an open letter by the group. "We will call off the April 7 protest rally if the prime minister will resign before that." The anti-Thaksin movement began six months ago when media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul accused Thaksin of autocracy, abuse of power, massive corruption and cronyism. The movement swiftly expanded in late January when his family decided to sell a 49.6 percent stake in telecom giant Shin Corp., which he founded, to the Singaporean government's investment arm. |