PAD and opposition parties to accept PM's conditions

The People's Alliance for Democracy and opposition parties have promised to accept the conditions of embattled caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who offered to resign if their antiThaksin protests cease and if opposition parties contest a postreform election.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Tuesday that the Democrats accepted the conditions offered by Thaksin that he would resign if the opposition parties agreed to participate in the next election following political reform.

Abhisit said he watched Thaksin on TV Monday night and considered that the conditions set by Thaksin were acceptable.

Opposition parties - Democrat, Chat Thai and Mahachon - boycotted the April 2 election as they viewed that Thaksin's call for House dissolution leading to the election was not legitimate.

Thaksin promised in a television programme on Monday that he was ready to step down immediately if PAD and the opposition parties agreed to his conditions. He also proposed setting up a reconciliation committee whose assignment would be to address the deadlocked political situation.

 "The Democrat Party has no problems with the conditions and we have talked to the two other parties [Chat Thai and Mahachon], and they also have no problems," Abhisit said.

Meanwhile, leading PAD members also announced on Tuesday that they will cease their rallies if Thaksin announced in public that he will not take the premiership in the new government.

"We are more than ready to stop our rallies if Thaksin does what he said on Monday," PAD's spokesman Suriyasai Katasila said in a press briefing.

The briefing included other PAD leaders Chamlong Srimuang and Pipop Thongchai.

Suriyasai also said that the core of the reconciliation committee should be neutral figures and it should comprise representatives of political parties and other public sectors.

The Nation