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BANGKOK: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej found little support Friday for his proposal to hold a referendum to resolve the stalemate with protesters who have occupied his offices for 11 days.
The protesters stormed into his Government House compound on August 26 demanding that Samak resign and that Thailand's democracy be curtailed, saying only 30 per cent of seats in parliament should be elected.
Samak has refused to step down or call snap elections, insisting that he would stay in office in order to defend democracy.
He has proposed holding a referendum to defuse the crisis, but critics slammed the plan, arguing that the balloting would only drag out the turmoil and risked sparking new violence like the clashes among rival protesters that left one of Samak's supporters dead early Tuesday.
Speaker of the Senate Prasobsook Boondech told reporters that organising a referendum would take at least one month.
"The problem of the country is immediate and needs to be resolved as quickly as possible," he said.
The opposition Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said on the website for the Thairath newspaper that the referendum would not resolve the stalemate.
He proposed that Samak dissolve parliament and call snap elections, something the premier has forcefully rejected.
After the deadly violence in the early hours of Tuesday, Samak declared a state of emergency in Bangkok, essentially handing control of the capital to the powerful army chief General Anupong Paojinda.
But Anupong has so far refused to evict the squatters who have turned their camp on the Government House lawn into a small village where protesters receive free food and even complimentary haircuts.
The White House on Thursday voiced support for Samak's elected government, but urged all sides to refrain from violence.
"We urge both supporters and opponents of the Thai government to refrain from violence, respect the rule of law, and address their differences within Thailand's democratic institutions," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The protesters, who call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), are an unlikely mix of royalists, business tycoons, and unionists united only by their desire to see Samak resign.
Thailand's people are deeply divided by the protests, with one survey of 16 provinces showing 50 per cent of respondents supported the movement.
The finding highlights the social divide that ripped Thailand apart in recent years, with Bangkok's traditional elite backing the PAD while poor but populous rural areas support Samak.
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was the first politician to rally Thailand's rural voters with low-cost loans and free health care.
But the PAD staged mass protests against Thaksin in 2006, accusing him of corruption and paving the way for a military coup.
Thaksin has fled to Britain to escape corruption charges, but he tapped Samak to lead his supporters to a victory in elections last December, which ended more than a year of military rule.
The PAD protestors accuse Samak of acting as Thaksin's puppet, and say they want to change the electoral system to weaken the influence of poor voters to ensure that their political allies do not return to power.
- AFP/yb
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