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BANGKOK - A key member of Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej's ruling coalition government withdrew from the alliance on Tuesday, striking yet another blow to the struggling administration.
The Puea Pandin party, the fourth-biggest in parliament with 24 seats, said it was backing out because it did not agree with Samak's priorities.
"The party will withdraw from the coalition government. We have given the government a chance to make changes," Puea Pandin leader Suwit Khunkitti told a press conference.
"We are concerned about the charter amendments. We have said that the amendment of the constitution is less important than people's day-to-day problems."
Samak's government has said it intends to make sweeping changes to a constitution brought in last year during military rule, which followed a September 2006 coup that ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Puea Pandin's withdrawal from the coalition formed in February this year would still leave Samak's government with enough seats to govern, but comes as the woes pile up for the prime minister.
Street protests have badgered his administration since May, while an unresolved military standoff with Cambodia over a disputed piece of border land has enraged nationalists in Thailand.
Three ministers and another top government official have already been forced from office by court decisions and criminal scandals, and three more ministers are in jeopardy after being named in a lawsuit.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case accusing Thaksin and 46 others including the current finance minister, labour minister and a deputy transport minister of mismanaging a state lottery scheme in 2003.
The new constitution states that any serving minister involved in a lawsuit must step down, but the three have said they will challenge that provision.
Former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama was forced out of office earlier this month over the spat with Cambodia, while the health minister and a minister attached to Samak's office have also been forced to resign.
Four Puea Pandin MPs hold ministerial posts, raising the prospect of further upheaval to the Cabinet.
Samak has already said he intends to reshuffle the Cabinet, telling reporters earlier Tuesday to expect the new line-up within days.
His People Power Party (PPP) won nearly half the parliamentary seats in elections last December, which ended more than a year of military rule.
PPP openly campaigned on behalf of Thaksin, infuriating the old power elite in the palace, military and bureaucracy, which felt threatened by the ousted premier's hold on the country's rural population.
Thaksin was banned from politics for five years in 2007 by a constitutional tribunal.
Sanan Kachonprasart, leader of the PPP's largest coalition partner Chart Thai, said he was shocked by Puea Pandin's move.
"We will consider our position later," he told reporters.
- AFP/ir
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