Thai protesters step up efforts to disrupt elections with blockade
Print Edition
Anti-government protesters determined to unseat Thailand’s prime minister surrounded a Bangkok sports stadium yesterday in an unsuccessful attempt to block political parties from registering for February elections.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is popular among the rural majority but disliked by the urban middle class and elite, called the February 2 elections to defuse tension after several weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations in the Thai capital.
The attempted blockade came after the main opposition Democrat Party said over the weekend it will boycott the vote, which Yingluck’s ruling party would likely win.
Officials from her party and eight others managed to sign up for the election by slipping into the stadium in the middle of the night, despite the presence of some protesters who had camped out overnight, the state Election Commission said.
“We were aware that protesters would be blocking all entrances, so we went into the stadium at 4am while they were sleeping,” said Prompong Nopparit, spokesman of the ruling Pheu Thai party. “Despite all this, the elections will continue as planned on February 2.”
The protesters have vowed to continue the blockade.
Bluesky Channel, a web and satellite television station that serves as the voice of the protest movement, showed a protest leader asking followers to guard all the gates to the stadium last night as well because representatives of the ruling party had managed to “sneak in” the night before.
More than two dozen other parties were able to begin the registration process at a nearby police station, where they filed complaints saying they were unable to access the main venue because of the blockade, the commission said.
Hundreds of protesters tried to seal off the police station, too, and then tried to block representatives of several political parties from leaving.
The demonstrators say Yingluck’s removal is necessary to purge the country of corruption and money politics.
They view Yingluck as a puppet of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and is living in self-imposed exile overseas after being convicted of corruption.
The protesters want an appointed interim government to oversee political and electoral reforms.
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