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Published on October 22, 2007

An ambitious plan to merge three political parties failed yesterday, less than 24 hours after it was announced.

The planned merger of the Pracharaj, Matchima Thippatai and Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana will be suspended until after the December 23 election, Pracharaj deputy leader Korn Dabbaransi said yesterday.

Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana's key men yesterday insisted National Legislative Assembly member Admiral Bannawit Kengrian, supposedly representing it in the merger talks, was not authorised to do so. They said the party would not merge with any other political party until after the election.

Failure by Pracharaj and Matchima Thippatai to agree on many important issues was also a reason for the collapse of the merger plan, sources close to the two parties said yesterday.

The merger plan was thought up by Korn and Matchima Thippatai leader Prachai Leophairatana, without the knowledge of Pracharaj leader Snoh Thienthong, according to a Pracharaj source.

A source said Snoh was caught off guard by the proposal. He was shocked to se an army of reporters waiting at the residence of late General Chatichai Choonhavan for the announcement of the merger on Saturday. Matchima Thippatai had been trying hard to get Snoh to agree to the merger.

Snoh had been told the meeting was to be a small discussion between leaders of the two parties about "how they would work together", the source said.

At further talks on Saturday night, Snoh and Prachai could not agree who would become leader of the merged party or what it would be called. They both insisted on using their own party's name.

They also could not agree who would have final say about the fielding of election candidates in case there were too many in one constituency, according to the source.

Korn yesterday said there was not enough time for the three parties to merge because the election decree would take effect soon and the new merged party would be hard pushed to prepare for the election.

He said the new party would have had to call a caucus and draft policies. The Election Commission would also be starting party list MP candidate registration soon.

"We will continue our alliance and good intentions to work together,'' he said.

Korn denied that withdrawing the merger plan was a political drama and that the failure stemmed from conflict over who would head the merged party.

"This is politics. Changes happen all the time. We have not talked about that yet. I have talked to Prachai and we still have an understanding. Snoh [Thienthong] is also not attached to the position,'' he said.

Chat Pattana group leader Suwat Liptapanlop yesterday denied his group would defect from Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana Party to merge with other parties.

He was confident the party would win more than 50 MP seats, of which at least 16 would be in the northeastern provinces.

He denied Admiral Bannawit represented Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana in negotiations to merge the three parties.

Party leader General Chettha Thanajaro yesterday said Bannawit was not a party member and that Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana would not merge with any other party until after the election. It has not decided whether to side with People Power Party or the Democrat Party, he said.

Anongwan Thepsutin, the Matchima Thippatai secretary general, said yesterday that she felt a merger would be difficult as there were many differences to be settled.

She said that among other things, the parties would have to agree on the fielding of candidates in constituencies where they have too many aspiring candidates.

The Nation