After the meeting, the government said the poll would go ahead as
scheduled, and it derided the leader of the protest movement, Suthep
Thaugsuban.
“We believe the election will bring the situation back to normal,”
Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana told reporters. “We can see
that the support for Mr. Suthep is declining. When he is doing something
against the law, most people do not support that.”
Speakers at protest sites across central Bangkok have given the
impression Yingluck is worn out and eager to quit. But she seemed
relaxed and cheerful at the meeting, which was held inside an air force
base near Don Muang International Airport.
Her senior officials stressed the caretaker government had no legal
powers to postpone or cancel the election and stressed that even an
imperfect poll was better than none.
“The ballot box doesn’t solve everything, and she knows that. But at
least that’s the right step,” Suranand Vejjajiva, secretary-general to
the prime minister, told Reuters.
Air Traffic Control Assured
The protesters say they will occupy the city’s main arteries until an
unelected “people’s council” replaces Yingluck’s administration.
Thaksin’s rural and working-class support has ensured he or his
allies have won every election since 2001 and Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party
seems certain to win any vote held under present arrangements.
The protesters want to suspend what they say is a democracy
commandeered by the self-exiled billionaire Thaksin, whom they accuse of
nepotism and corruption, and eradicate the political influence of his
family by altering electoral arrangements.
There was no sign of trouble at the two targets named by hardliners
in the protest movement, the stock exchange and the central Bangkok
offices of AeroThai, which is in charge of air traffic control
communication for planes using Thai air space.
AeroThai said it had back-up operations to ensure no disruption to air travel if its control center was shut down.
Suthep’s supporters have blockaded at least seven big Bangkok
intersections and are also trying to stop ministries from functioning,
forcing many to remain closed, with civil servants working from back-up
facilities or from home.
Yingluck herself has been unable to work from her offices in Government House since late November.
Demonstrators marched to the home of Energy Minister Pongsak
Raktapongpaisal carrying a coffin with his name on it, ASTV news
reported. They handed one of his aides a note demanding that he cut LPG
prices and resign, it said.
According to the official Twitter account of National Police
spokesman Piya Utayo, an off-duty policeman dressed in civilian clothes
was attacked and had his gun taken off him by about 10 protesters at a
rally near the Energy Ministry.
‘Red Shirts’ to
Stay out of Bangkok
The latest protests have been less violent than a spasm of unrest in
2010, when troops were sent in to end a two-month protest in central
Bangkok by “red shirt” Thaksin supporters. More than 90 people died
during those protests.
Thaksin, who turned to politics after making a fortune in
telecommunications, redrew Thailand’s political map by courting rural
voters. He lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence handed down in 2008
for abuse of power.
There have been relatively few factional clashes in this upsurge of
unrest with the government keen to avoid confrontation. Government
supporters said they held protests on Monday and Tuesday in provinces
neighbouring Bangkok but had no plans to demonstrate in the city.
“All we ask is that Prime Minister Yingluck does not resign,” said
Worawut Wichaidit, spokesman for the pro-government United Front for
Democracy Against Dictatorship.
“If (Suthep) and his group achieve their goal … the outcome would be
similar to a coup, and we all saw what happened the last time there was a
coup,” Worawut said, referring to instability and factional strife in
the years that followed the last army takeover in 2006.
It is widely thought that, if the agitation grinds on, the judiciary
or military may step in. The military has staged or attempted 18 coups
in 81 years of on-off democracy, although it has tried to stay neutral
this time and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has publicly refused to take
sides.
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