enough seats to form the core of the government. Yet he blew hot and cold o the issue, at times denying that he had his eyes set on the prime ministership Chart party were instructed to party leader ambition to become to concentrate on policies. Pramarn claimed that: "Being head of state gives nothing but head- aches. The leader of the Social Action Party also denied any interest in the premiership. Montree claimed that he was "too young". By staying out of the premiership debate, these parties avoided the criticism from the Campaign for Democracy and the former opposition parties of both being "satanic" and ha ing "unusually wealthy" leaders. major Thus, the strange situation emerged where all three leaders of the angelic" parties had indicated their willingness to serve as prime minister. and the leaders of the three major "satanic" parties had all more or less de clared that they would not accept the post. In the case of Chatichai, he had been boxed into a corner from which he would have found it difficult to extricate himself, and for Montree, as the leader of a small party, the prime minis- tership was never a likelihood anyway. Pramarn was another matter and, de spite his age and his "unusually wealthy" status, it is possible that he would have accepted the premiership had his party been victorious, but he must have realised that such a move would be unpopular, and would lead to the same sort of pressure that had been exerted on Suchinda. Neither did any of the three parties have deputy leaders with strong leadership qualifications. Ironi cally, in a situation where it was possible that either ChartThai or Chart Pattana might achieve the numbers to be the senior partner in a coalition government,