Opposition launches new protests after marred Thailand polls
03 Feb 2014
Thailand's anti-government protesters today forged ahead with efforts to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a day after a disrupted election that is unlikely to settle Thailand's long-running political conflict.
The demonstrators blocked balloting in a fifth of the country's constituencies in the disputed elections that are expected to be comfortably won by Shinwatra's Pheu Thai Party. But the opposition insists that Yingluck must resign and make way for an appointed "people's council" to overhaul the political system. They say the country has been taken hostage by her billionaire brother Thaksin Shinawatra the former prime minister.
The protests centred around Bangkok, and despite the opposition boycott voting passing off peacefully across the north and northeast, allowing Yingluck's supporters to claim a legitimate mandate.
But reports say that as the polls have been boycotted by the opposition Democrat Party and the protesters had blocked candidate registration at many centres before polls, the parliament will not have enough members to convene.
Thus the vote is unlikely to change the dysfunctional status quo in a country popular with tourists and investors yet blighted by eight years of polarisation and turmoil, pitting the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of the Shinawatras.
The protesters plan to march to Lumpini Park today as the rallies planned to Lat Phrao and Victory Monument protest have been cancelled in view of security risks.
The protests have been organised by the anti-government group People's Democraticw Reform Committee (PDRC), led by Suthep Thaugsuban, who had called for a boycott of the elections as soon as they were called, urging people not to vote in an election that was bound to bring the 'Thaksin regime' back to power.
The marred polling could mean that it may not be feasible for Shinawatra to form a government, thus landing Thailand into another post-poll phase of political crisis.
The election itself was reported to be peaceful apart from a few scuffles, with no repeat of the chaos seen the previous day, when supporters and opponents of Yingluck clashed in north Bangkok and seven people were wounded by gunshots or explosions.
