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BANGKOK : Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva Saturday dismissed the threat by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra to mobilise his supporters next week in a "people's revolution".
The fugitive former prime minister made a rallying call by video link a night earlier to crowds that have surrounded Abhisit's offices since March 26 in a bid to force the government to resign and call fresh elections.
Thaksin rejected an offer by the government to hold talks and urged his loyalists to come from all over the country to a mass rally on April 8
But Abhisit said such upheaval would "destroy democracy" in Thailand.
"I don't see that the circumstances exist to warrant such a thing (uprising) happening because we can still make changes under the constitution," the prime minister told reporters.
"On the contrary, if change takes place outside of the constitution it will lead to unending problems and destroy democracy and create an illegal state," he said.
Abhisit said that the views of Thaksin's supporters, the so-called "Red Shirts", could be given a greater voice within the parliamentary system, but shrugged off Thaksin's rejection of talks.
"There is no problem, in fact there is no need to talk with him," he said, while urging legal authorities to speed up criminal investigations against Thaksin, who is in exile to avoid a conviction for corruption.
The former premier, who was toppled in a coup in 2006, remains hugely popular among the rural and urban poor but is loathed by Thailand's old guard in the palace, military and bureaucracy.
Police said about 1,500 anti-government activists remain at Government House in the biggest rally since the prime minister took office in December. The demonstration forced the cabinet to cancel its weekly meeting on Monday.
The government, which came to power on the back of a court decision that removed Thaksin's allies from power, survived a no-confidence motion last month brought by the pro-Thaksin opposition.
- AFP /ls
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