Special report: Thai deputy PM appointed caretaker PM    

    BANGKOK, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Tens of thousands of Thais rallied at Bangkok's Sanam Luang (Royal Square) again on Friday to call for the reform of Thai politics and Constitution.

    More and more opposition activists gathered at Sanam Luang since Friday morning and their leaders said there will be more than 100,000 demonstrators at night to push the protest toward its climax.

    A protester named Nok told Xinhua that he has attended demonstration six times in the past two months. "But today's attendance will the last one for me because Thaksin has already stepped aside."

    Friday's protest, led by the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and was scheduled to continue well into the Saturday morning, is also said to be the unofficial kick start to a "second stage" campaign to force caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra out of public life entirely.

    The People's Alliance for Democracy will restructure its organization to People's Assembly for Democracy which cooperates with the former opposition parties and people around the country to push for the political reform, PAD coordinator Suriyasai Katasila said on Friday.

    Suriyasai said the group would change the number of its leaders from five to nine or 11. It would expand its network around the country, especially in the North and the Northeast, Thaksin's ThaiRak Thai Party's vote bases where the party's MP candidate have won despite lots of abstaining votes in the April 2 election.

    Suriyasai said the group would try harder in campaigning against Thaksin's system, the administration tradition of Thaksin. It would hold more mobile rallies in provinces.

    The assembly would work in parallel with the government appointed political reform committee, in which it would send representatives to join. It would promote civic participatory politics by letting representatives from interest groups such as professionals, educational institutions, lawyers and the media, hesaid.

    "The first stage is to oust Thaksin and the second is to uproot the Thaksin regime, or a so-called Thaksin's system," Suriyasai told journalists.

    Sondhi Limthongkul, a core member and the founder of PAD, said on Friday that he will continue his rallies "if the new prime minister could not pass PAD's permission".

    Thaksin announced on Tuesday his decision of stepping aside in the new government although his Thai Rak Thai Party ostensibly won the April 2 general elections. But the opponents said the "Thaksin system" must be ruled out before ending the rallies which have be shown on for two months. Enditem