Former Thai PM Chuan Leekpai dashes hope of him following Mahathir's footstep

BANGKOK: Former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai has squashed any hopes of him following the footsteps of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in making a political comeback and becoming Democrat Party's prime ministerial candidate.
Chuan who is 79 years old announced his decision after key figures in the political party urged him to do "a Mahathir" by coming out of retirement to lead the party in the coming general election, slated for February next year.
They believed the soft-spoken former premier and patriarch of Democrat Party would be the right man to take on the military-led government during election.
"I will not be among the candidates for sure," he was quoted by the local media today, dousing any hopes among members of the Democrat Party of him staging a political comeback, similar to what Mahathir had done during Malaysia's just concluded 14th General Election (GE14).
Mahathir, 92, caused a "political earthquake" when he successfully led Malaysian opposition parties to victory in the hotly-contested general election and ended Barisan Nasional (BN)'s six-decades grip on the country.
Following the stunning election results, the nonagenarian was sworn in as Malaysia's seventh Premier and became the world's oldest Prime Minister. Mahathir was also the country's fourth Prime Minister, ruling the country from 1981 until 2003.
With Chuan turning down the request from party members for him to make a political comeback, the Democrat Party's hopes of upstaging the military in the election rests on the shoulder of incumbent leader and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.
According to Section 88 of Thailand's Constitution, every political party must declare up to three prime ministerial candidates to the Election Commission before campaign for general election begins. — Bernama