At 8.40pm Bangkok time today, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [1] has announced a House dissolution on national television after he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King earlier this evening.
He said that decision as an act to return the mandate to the people in order to uphold the democratic rules.
Snap election to elect the new government is to take place on April 2.
The decision was taken after public pressure escalated calling for for his resignation since the sell-off of his family’s controlling stake in Shin Corp [2] to Temasek [3], the Singapore’s government investment agency. Critics have accused him of insider trading and structuring the deal to avoid paying hefty taxes, among other irregularities.
This month, we have seen impeachment attemp by 28 senators, Anti-Thaksin rallies of 50,000 protesters joined by student unions from the leading Thailand universities all calling PM Thaksin to step down.
2Bangkok.com on his analysis [4] mentioned that there is a big possibility that Thaksin will fight back and stay in power.
… Thaksin, not being a political animal, but a business leader not adverse to failure, is more interested in regrouping and staying in charge where he believes he belongs. He will not step into the shadows like a canny career politician, but try to weather the storm like an embattled CEO guiding his company through a sales downturn…
..This is where the eventual conflict could come because Thaksin will not play by Thai political rules and step aside once ‘society’ (academics, politicians, and activists, but not necessarily voters) has judged him to have lost legitimacy to rule…