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Published on September 23, 2007

Samak said yesterday he welcomed Chalerm but the matter of his son would need to be discussed "internally" and there would not be a press conference about it.

Since at least one of Chalerm's sons has a reputation for being a bully with a violent temper, which doesn't sit well with Bangkok voters, some veteran politicians from the capital believe it would be bad for the new party's image, which is already under attack.

"We proposed a condition to the party that if Chalerm is joining he should come alone. Two of his sons may be able to run in Nakhon Phanom, which was the political base of the [now defunct] New Aspiration Party. Chalerm shouldn't run as a party-list candidate while having his son run in Bangkok too," a source said.

Chalerm used to be an executive of the New Aspiration Party.

The source said that before Chalerm's recent visit to London, amid conjecture that he might have met ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Samak supposedly summoned some Bangkok party members and told them that if Chalerm's son ran in the city it would be "unacceptable to Bangkokians".

Anek Laothammathat, leader of the Ruam Jai Thai-Chat Pattana group, discounted speculation that Chalerm had gone to London to crack a deal with Thaksin for General Chavalit Yongchaiyuth to defect from his political group to the People Power Party, which is widely thought to be under Thaksin's influence.

He said that as Chavalit was a man of his word and wanted to see reconciliation in the country it was unlikely he would want to jump ship to the People Power Party.