Thai king asks courts to intervene
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thailand's influential king asked the country's top courts to resolve an impending political crisis over elections that have failed to fill a new Parliament, saying Tuesday he would not intervene to appoint an interim government.
He also criticized the recent elections, in which the ruling party ran unopposed in many constituencies because of an opposition boycott, as undemocratic.
"We have to find a way to solve the problem," King Bhumibol Adulyadej said in a rare public address. "Having an election with only one candidate running is impossible. This is not a democracy
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/04/25/thailand.elections.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Thai king refuses to appoint new PM
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's widely respected king rejected the opposition's calls to appoint a new prime minister to end the country's long-running political crisis while branding recent elections undemocratic.
In his first public remarks on the issue, King Bhumibol Adulyadej rebuffed opposition calls that he intervene after mass protests forced Thaksin Shinawatra to announce he would not take the top post in a new government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060425/wl_afp/thailandpoliticsking_060425152435
Thai king urges top judges to end political crisis
BANGKOK, April 25 (Reuters) - Thailand's constitutional king urged top judges on Tuesday to help end the country's political crisis after an inconclusive general election left it unlikely to elect a new prime minister and form a government.
In a rare intervention, King Bhumibol Adulyadej told senior judges he summoned to his seaside palace in Hua Hin he could not produce a solution to a crisis he said would put the country in jeopardy.
"It is a mess," the 78-year-old king, who is due to celebrate his 60th anniversary on throne on June, told Supreme Court judges after an opposition boycott of a snap election and by-elections left some parliamentary seats empty.
"You'd better discuss with others what solutions are available, otherwise the country will be in jeopardy," the world's longest living monarch told them in meetings broadcast on television.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060425/wl_nm/thailand_dc_3
photo from reuters :
