Ex-premier Abhisit turns on Thai junta’s draft charter

BANGKOK: A former prime minister whose party supported Thailand’s last coup lambasted the junta’s new constitution on Wednesday before a referendum on it, a rare blow to the army from within its own political camp.

The junta says the new document is crucial to tackling corruption and ending a decade of political turmoil that has torn the country apart. But critics say it will straitjacket democracy with clauses calling for a fully-appointed senate and unelected premier — both of which could help the military elite keep its allies in power.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was appointed prime minister from 2008-2011, leads the Democrats, Thailand’s second biggest party.

“I do not approve of the draft constitution,” Abhisit told AFP in a rare attack on the junta from within Bangkok’s powerful elite.

His party has failed for two decades to win an election but carries major clout within the establishment that rallied behind the May 2014 overthrow of Yingluck Shinawatra’s elected government.

“It goes against the basic principle of what we believe in... democracy,” Abhisit said, adding that the document ‘will trigger new conflict.’ He urged the junta to rewrite the charter.

Abhisit, a smooth speaker educated at top British fee-paying school Eton, is a serial election loser who has boycotted two polls in the past decade. Most recently, he lost the 2011 vote that swept Yingluck into power. Two years later his deputy led the street protests to unseat Yingluck, who commands strong support from Thailand’s rural majority but is hated by the Bangkok-based elite. — AFP