Thai PM plans referendum to end crisis

By Nopporn Wong-Anan

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand plans to hold a national referendum to end a political crisis over street protests against the government, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said on Thursday after rejecting calls to quit.

Leaders of the three-month-old campaign in Bangkok to oust Samak dismissed the plan, signaling that political uncertainty would continue to beset the Southeast Asian nation.

Late on Thursday night, a gunman on a motorcycle fired shots at a group of about 100 students marching to protest at Samak's home, wounding two of them, police said.

The campaign to force Samak to quit has been mostly peaceful, but one man was killed and 45 wounded in clashes earlier this week between pro- and anti-government groups, prompting the imposition of emergency rule which gives the army powers to intervene.

Police said the shooting appeared to be an isolated incident and there was no tension in the city.

Samak, desperately seeking a way to end the crisis that has paralyzed his government, said in a radio broadcast that he would urge the Senate to pass a pending referendum law quickly.

"The campaign will last for a month in which both sides can do whatever electioneering they want," he said, adding that the thousands of activists who have barricaded themselves within his official compound could stay there during this period.

But in an another apparent rebuff to Samak's plans, Senate President Prasobsuk Boondej said he did not believe a vote, even a rushed one, would end the crisis.

"The current situation needs an immediate solution to defuse it. We can't afford to wait for the referendum law to pass," he told reporters.

The anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a mainly middle class grouping of royalists and businessmen whose activists took over the prime minister's offices 10 days ago, called the plan a delaying tactic to keep Samak in office.

"The referendum will not solve anything," PAD spokesman Parnthep Pourpongpan said.

PROXY

The PAD accuses Samak of being an illegal proxy for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup and now in exile in London. Thaksin is widely admired by the poor and in the countryside but despised by Bangkok's middle class.

Earlier, Samak dismissed talk that he would quit or call a snap election to defuse the protests.

"I will not jump ship. I will be in control," he said.