BANGKOK (AP): Thailand's military-appointed prime minister said Wednesday he opposed a proposal by the European Union to monitor the upcoming general election, which would be the first since a coup ousted disgraced Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra last year.
The EU had proposed signing a memorandum of understanding with Thailand's official Election Commission to take part in independent monitoring of the polls, slated for Dec. 23. But the commission Tuesday rejected the EU proposal, and interim Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said he agreed with its decision.
Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party, which won landslide election victories in 2001 and 2005, will not take part in the polls, because it was dissolved by court order in May for electoral fraud committed last year. More than 100 of its top members, including Thaksin, have been banned from politics. (***)
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