The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) will hold a mass rally at Makkhawan Bridge on Rajdamnoen Avenue. Its leaders promise it will be the last, but biggest, of their campaign against caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

With developments occurring among all involved parties over recent days, one is led to the belief that a major incident will finally come about to break the stalemate.

Army chief General Sonthi Boon-yaratglin's comments after meeting with Thaksin on Wednesday were one indication that something big was brewing.

He implied that someone in the government was attempting to declare a state of emergency, under which the prime minister could order the military to intervene.

But Sonthi, commenting about the matter for the first time after repeated denials, said he disagreed with any attempt to declare a state of emergency, as the anti-Thaksin protests have been largely peaceful.

His words, however, came at the time when the Metropolitan Police and the Army were insisting they were well prepared for any unexpected situations tomorrow.

The public was also taken by surprise when the PAD welcomed the possible option of a royally sponsored prime minister to replace defiant Thaksin, after earlier rejecting the idea.

One of the PAD's key leaders, Chamlong Srimuang, reportedly met with a prominent figure and later gave a strong hint the April 2 election will not take place.

Chamlong's move followed a plea for reconciliation last week by His Majesty the King's chief adviser and Privy Council president Prem Tinsulanonda, who showed his impatience with the mounting tension created by all parties to the political stand-off.

It was Prem's first political comment in many years, and it came while Government House remained under siege by thousands of demonstrators calling for Thaksin's resignation.

It is believed that Prem passed a royal ultimatum to the two sides that they should take a few steps back and reach a compromise.

Prem's unexpected statement added intrigue to the broadcast by television stations on March 12 of footage of HM the King giving advice to military strongman Suchinda Kraprayoon and Chamlong following bloody anti-government protests in May 1992, led by Chamlong.

Although nobody has been named as having ordered the broadcast, it is said to have been a warning delivered to a group of people attempting to make history repeat itself, by defeating its opponents at the cost of civilian lives.

The promise that tomorrow's PAD rally will be the biggest of the campaign is not without logic.

It comes in cooperation with the Democrat Party, which will hold a rally this afternoon at Sanam Luang. Tens of thousands of supporters from its stronghold in the South are expected to listen once again to the rationale behind the party's plan to boycott the election.

At tomorrow's PAD event, the alliance's leaders have vowed to lead the crowd somewhere, but at press time there was no hint of the destination.

Thaksin still shows no signs of surrender, and calls the protesters outlaws and enemies of democracy.

Therefore it seems sure that the likes of Chamlong and Sondhi Limthongkul PAD's strongmen will not let this last campaign run its course by simply walking, shouting and cursing, before going home.

Their goal is to ensure the snap election, which will see Thaksin's return to the premiership, never gets off the ground.

And when tomorrow is over, we might, at last, see more than a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel.

We might glimpse the solution for which all parties have been waiting.

Weerayut Chokchaimadon

The Nation