Govt may delay Parliament meeting

Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban was assigned to coordinate with the military and police, who oversee the red-shirt protest, to analyse the situation if the protest is likely to turn violent. The Democrats were instructed to come back to the party headquarters. The coalition parties will be told to go back to their party headquarters while the ruling party decides the next move.

The policy statement is expected to be delivered at 9.30am but the government will put it off to the evening if they could not enter Parliament in the morning.

Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya and PM's Office Minister Virachai Virameteekul, who are the targets of the Opposition attack, said they did not have any concern as they were confident they could clear themselves of all charges.

Pheu Thai Party MPs will gather at their party head office at 8 am Monday to evaluate the situation before attending the government policy debate.

Ayutthaya MP Witthaya Buranasiri said the MPs would evaluate the situation before deciding whether to attend the policy debate.

He said if the Democrat Party postpones the debate because protests by the red-shirted people, the Pheu Thai MPs would hold a rally at the Royal Plaza to attack the government.

Meanwhile, Pheu Thai Party met for almost three hours to tutor and prepare its MPs on the policy debate.

Pheu Thai's Chiang Mai MP Surapong Towichakchaikul said the party would stress on the evidence, not rhetoric or mudslinging at the government. The party will grill PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongteoy for removing the Truth Today programme from NBT station, the fabrication of evidence in the land reform scheme - the Sor Por Kor land.

Back in 1995, Newin Chidchob, a leader of the Friends of Newin group took a leading role in the no-confidence debate against the Chuan Leekpai government over irregularities in the land reform scheme that brought down the Democrat-led government.

"Newin accused the Democrats in the Sor Por Kor and we have damning evidence on the issue," he said.

Surapong warned the government that they might have to go through the same experience of climbing over the Parliament gates to escape from the protesters.

Pheu Thai Party Nakhon Ratchasima MP Somchai Phetprasert urged the government to increase time for the Opposition to debate from two to three days saying more than 80 MPs had signed their names to get time for the debate.

Pheu Thai Party MP Chalerm Yoobamrung accused the government of copying the populist policies of the Thaksin government but failing to set a time frame for the urgent policies. He attacked the move to set up a special task committee to solve the problem in the South, saying it was doomed to fail and would be a waste of the tax-payers' money.

Chalerm said he would grill Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva over the government's economic stimulus package saying he could not speed up the use of the Bt100 billion fund because the funds must be used through projects that have to go through the bidding and contract process.

The party will also demand that Abhisit remove Kasit for violating Article 135 of the Criminal Law for instigating terrorism at Rachathewa Police Station and take action against Interior Minister Chaovarat Chanweerakul and his deputy Boonjong Wongtrairat for abuse of power.

The party will also demand Abhisit to dissolve House.

Meanwhile, appointed Senator Ruangkrai Leekijwattana said he would file a complaint with the Attorney-General and the Constitution Court taking recourse to Article 68 of the Constitution to investigate if the government had illegitimately formed the Cabinet.

He said reports had it that before the Parliament voted for the new PM, Suthep contacted politicians who were banned from politics including those in the group of House number 111 and the House number 109 to join forces with the party in forming a government.

Although Abhisit publicly announced that the Democrats would not form a government that it accused of policy corruption, Suthpe said, "If we do not have their support, we cannot be the government," Ruangkrai quoted Suthep as saying.

The Senator also raised suspicions that there could be irregularities in the by-election for 29 MPs in 26 constituencies because the Democrat Party had said it would field only nine MP candidates. He said he would look into detail of laws and press interviews given by the coalition parties and the Democrats regarding the matter before deciding whether to lodge a petition against the government.