Thailand's king asks courts to resolve country's political crisis

Bangkok: Thailand's constitutional king urged top judges on Tuesday to help end the country's political crisis after an inconclusive general election left it unlikely to elect a new prime minister and form a government.

In a rare intervention, King Bhumibol Adulyadej told senior judges he summoned to his seaside palace in Hua Hin he could not produce a solution to a crisis he said would put the country in jeopardy.

"It is a mess," the 78-year-old king, who is due to celebrate his 60th anniversary on throne on June, told Supreme Court judges after an opposition boycott of a snap election and by-elections left some parliamentary seats empty.

"You'd better discuss with others what solutions are available, otherwise the country will be in jeopardy," he told them in meetings broadcast on television.

The king rejected calls by some academics and pro-democracy activists to directly intervene by appointing a "neutral" prime minister.

The constitution, he said, did not allow him to. On Saturday, there will be what the the Election Commission says is a final attempt to fill the remaining 13 seats in parliament as the constitution says it must be full before it can meet and elect a new prime minister.

Commission chairman Wassana Permlarp told a Bangkok radio station there would be no more time to fill the seats left vacant in by-elections last Sunday because unopposed candidates failed to win the required 20 per cent of the eligible vote.