Bangkok sceptical about alleged assassination plot

BANGKOK - Only one in five people in greater Bangkok are convinced an alleged attempt to blow up Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra was real, an independent poll showed today.

The Bangkok University poll of 1174 people in the Thai capital and its suburbs over the weekend showed 49.8 per cent of respondents were not convinced there was a real attempt to assassinate Thaksin with a sophisticated car bomb last week.

Only 20.5 per cent believed the plot.

The rest did not know what to believe about an alleged conspiracy uncovered on the official opening day of a campaign for an October 15 general election re-run of an inconclusive April poll Thaksin called to counter a street campaign against him.

Of the sceptics in greater Bangkok, the region at the centre of the campaign, 60.6 per cent believed the government had cooked up the alleged assassination attempt, the poll showed.

Newspapers, many of which openly dislike Thaksin, have given plenty of reasons for doubts about a purported plot in which a lone army lieutenant has been arrested and charged, so far, only with illegal possession of explosives.

On Monday, they carried prominent reports of opposition calls on Thaksin to name four army officers he says were behind the plot but so far unidentified and apparently still free.

Thaksin, who denies accusations of corruption and abuse of power levelled by the leaders of the street campaign, called the April election in an attempt to prove the majority of voters still backed him.

However, a boycott by the major opposition parties rendered the election inconclusive and left Thailand with a caretaker government unable to make major policy decisions and without a functioning parliament.

The courts decreed it unlawful and ordered a re-run, which Thaksin, winner of two landslide victories on the back of widespread popularity in the countryside, is expected to win with a reduced majority.

- REUTERS