Asia-Pacific

Thai army seizes power, ousts Thaksin

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-09-20 06:31

The armed forces also announced Wednesday would be a government, bank and market holiday in the interests of maintaining calm.

Foreign news channels, including CNN and the BBC, were taken off the air.

Prapart said the armed forces and police had set up a body to decide on political reforms, ousting billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin in the midst of a political crisis stemming from accusations he had subverted democracy.

Weerasak Kohsurat, a deputy minister in a previous government, said he believed royal adviser Sumate Tantivejakul would steer the political reform process.

Elections would be called when it was done and Thaksin, Thailand's longest serving elected prime minister, would be allowed to take part, he said.

"NO ALTERNATIVE"

After mass street protests against him in Bangkok, Thaksin, winner of two election landslides, called a snap poll in April, hoping his rural following would counter his metropolitan foes.

However, opposition parties argued he had skewed neutral bodies such as the Election Commission in his favour and boycotted the poll. That rendered the election result invalid.

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party was expected to win a re-run tentatively scheduled for late November, increasing pressure on his opponents in the military and the old establishment to resort to removing him by force.

The prolonged crisis had slowed economic growth and hit the stock market as consumer confidence waned and the coup was likely to damage investor faith in Thailand further.

The Thai baht , one of Asia's strongest currencies this year, suffered its biggest fall in three years within hours of the coup.

Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's put Thailand's credit rating on review for possible downgrades as a result of the coup.

News of the coup helped lift the dollar and US Treasuries as some investors ducked into safe havens.