The Thai government on Thursday denied opposition claims that it faces a military coup amid intensifying street protests and ahead of expected elections.
Deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban rejected the suggestion, by a politician and leader of the anti-government "Red Shirts", that the army was poised to intervene in Thai politics.
"It's not possible because I have worked with all armed forces leaders and they support democracy," he told reporters.
But he acknowledged that some in the deeply divided nation would support a military move — which would be the 19th actual or attempted coup in Thailand since 1932.
"There may be some groups calling for a coup, but don't call for that, it's not the solution for our country," he said, less than five years after the military ousted Red Shirt icon Thaksin Shinawatra.
Army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd also denied any such plans.
"The army chief had repeatedly insisted that he will not stage a coup and in the current circumstances, no military figure would dare to mount a coup," he said, referring to General Prayut Chan-O-Cha.
Sunsern and Suthep were responding to comments by Puea Thai lawmaker Jatuporn Prompan, who said he had learned that some of country's top military leaders had recently met to map out a coup plot.
He said the move would be against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, following fresh protests by the nationalist and royalist "Yellow Shirt" movement, officially named the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).
Members of the group have camped outside government headquarters in Bangkok since Tuesday to demonstrate against the handling of a border territory dispute with neighbouring Cambodia. They have said they are there to stay.
Abhisit came to power in 2008 after Yellow protests — including the seizure of two Bangkok airports — helped to bring down former governments, but relations have since soured.
The PAD, backed by the Bangkok-based elite, are powerful players in Thailand's colour-coded politics and arch-rivals of the Reds, who held their most recent protest on Sunday, attracting around 27,000 supporters.
Thailand remains polarised after the mass opposition Red rallies in April and May last year, which sparked clashes between troops and protesters that left more than 90 people dead, mostly civilians.
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