Ex-Envoy to U.S. Chosen as Thailand’s Interim Leader : Prime minister: The military names Anand to take over after Feb. 23 coup. Provisional charter allows a surprisingly long timetable for elections.

This nation’s military rulers Saturday named a former ambassador to the United States to serve as Thailand’s interim civilian prime minister until elections are organized for a new Parliament.

The prime minister designate is Anand Panyarachun, 58, a prominent Thai businessman who heads the Federation of Thai Industries. Before moving into the private sector he had a successful career as a diplomat and was permanent secretary of the foreign ministry after serving as the ambassador to Washington.

Anand succeeds Chatichai Choonhavan, who was overthrown in a bloodless military coup Feb. 23. The military had indicated that Chatichai would be freed from detention when a new prime minister was appointed, but the announcement of Anand’s formal appointment by King Bhumibol Adulyadej made no mention of his predecessor.

An interim constitution, published Saturday, grants substantial powers over the caretaker government to the chairman of the military junta, Gen. Sunthorn Kongsompong.

The constitution, which was also approved by the king, gives Sunthorn the power to remove the prime minister at his will, although technically the actual removal is carried out by the monarch.

A surprise in the charter was the long timetable spelled out for holding new elections. The military had promised after taking power to draft a new constitution and hold an election within six months.

But the interim constitution is considerably more vague, saying that a newly created “National Assembly” should “take into consideration” the holding of elections by the end of 1991. But if a permanent constitution is not adopted in time, the elections can be postponed 120 more days.

Under the interim charter, the military, which calls itself the National Peacekeeping Council, will appoint a National Assembly of between 200 and 300 members, which will then form a committee of up to 20 members to draft the permanent constitution.

Concerns have been expressed by both Thai and foreign businessmen that delays in electing a new civilian government could adversely affect Thailand’s economic growth by scaring away foreign investors and tourists.

One of the reasons for Anand’s selection as prime minister was apparently his firm knowledge of economic matters, about which the military has virtually no experience.

Another factor that apparently led to his appointment was his experience in dealing with the major Western democracies. In addition to serving as ambassador to the United States, he has been Thailand’s ambassador to Canada, West Germany and the United Nations.

The United States has cut off $16.4 million in development aid to Thailand because of the military takeover, and Japan has announced that there will be no new foreign assistance for the time being.

So far, the only two governments to congratulate the Thai military for staging the coup have been China and Myanmar, both of which crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 with a massive show of force.

In another unusual move, Sunthorn announced that martial law, which was imposed at the start of the coup, would remain in place because of what he said was a plot to use foreigners to “create disturbances” in Thailand.

He said that he was not sure whether the foreign agents were hired by those “who lost power,” and did not provide any more details of the alleged plot.

“They want to create disorder in the country to show that we cannot control the situation,” Sunthorn said. “So we still need to retain martial law.”

The military has ordered banks and stock brokers to freeze the assets of 22 former Cabinet ministers in what has been described as an investigation into alleged corruption in the Chatichai government. If a committee finds that the wealth was illegally obtained the assets will be seized.

The junta said that corruption was the main reason the military staged the coup.