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SCMP Reporter

Thai Prime Minister General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh last night vowed to resign on Thursday.

 General Chavalit emerged from an emergency meeting of his New Aspiration Party and leaders of other coalition parties saying he would consult King Bhumibol Adulyadej after a special parliamentary session which begins tomorrow.

 'Yes, I am going to resign on November 6,' he said, adding that the future of his six-party coalition would be up to any new leader.

 'The important thing is not to have a gap in the administration of the country. If things go as planned I will become an ordinary MP.

 'I have finished my work and my intentions are as promised. It's finished. After this [you] will have a new government, new people to work as best as they can.'  A party official said it had been agreed to ask elder statesman General Prem Tinsulanonda to take over the premiership after former prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan, head of the Chart Pattana Party, refused the troubled post.

 'General Chavalit gave the position to General Chatichai, but he refused as he has health problems,' New Aspiration Party spokesman Premsak Piayura said.

 'General Chatichai advised General Chavalit to invite General Prem to be the new premier. The six coalition parties agreed,' he said.

 He said General Chatichai would visit General Prem, who served as premier for three terms between 1980 and 1988, to request him to step into the breach.

 'Everyone is forced to find a way out for the nation, so we hope that General Prem will accept this position because there is no one suitable for this position at the moment,' he said.

 General Prem, who is 77 and Thailand's longest-serving prime minister, is seen as one of the very few neutral figures free of scandal and political aspirations.

 There have been calls by the press and public for him to form a government of national unity to see Thailand through its worst economic slump since World War II as current coalition partners jostle for power.

 General Chavalit's promise to resign came after two tense weeks that at one stage saw protesters converge on Government House to demand he step down over Thailand's worsening economic crisis.

 The wounded Thai baht continued to trade beyond the crucial threshold of 40 to the US dollar yesterday.

 His comments surprised analysts, diplomats and opposition politicians, who urged caution given General Chavalit's habitual unease with definitive statements.

 They said he could resign but Parliament could not be dissolved under Thailand's radical new constitution, for which three supporting electoral laws must be implemented before it takes effect.

 They are due to be introduced to Parliament tomorrow, along with six finance reform decrees aimed at rehabilitating the troubled banking sector.

 One foreign diplomat warned of weeks of damaging uncertainty ahead, with few clear candidates to head an interim administration before elections.

 'It is so hard to know exactly what he is up to,' Abhisit Vejjajiva, spokesman for the main opposition Democrat Party, said last night, 'but it does seem that he is finally going to go.' 



Thai Prime Minister to quit