Thailand protests: election confirmed for February

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of ousted from premier Thaksin, was snubbed by opposition leaders on Tuesday when she invited them to discuss delaying the election.

The government has said the election, tabled for 2 February, will go ahead. Prime Minister Yingluck’s Pheu Thai (For Thais) Party will be confident of victory, having won every election since 2001 on the back of the support of rural voters in the north and east of the country.

Asia Correspondent John Sparks was on stage with Dr Seri Wongmontha, a protest leader. Watch the full video.

But Suthep Thaugsuban (pictured, below), who is leading the anti-government protests, said the elections would be “unfair”.

He said: “I don’t know who was at the meeting today, but the people don’t agree to hold an election under the same rules, and the same laws, because such an election will allow vote-buying, vote-rigging and so it will make the election impure and unfair.”

Mr Suthep was out amongst the crowds on Wednesday, collecting donations from his supporters.

Nevertheless, the government said it would press on with the elections, and Thai media reported that the police were preparing to arrest Mr Suthep.

“We believe the election will bring the situation back to normal,” Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana said.

“We can see that the support of Mr Suthep is declining. When he is doing something against the law, most people do not support that.”

In the meantime, Ms Yingluck’s government faces the ongoing unrest in Bangkok, which has been in the grip of a “shut down” since Monday.

Demonstrators have been occupying junctions of Bangkok’s main arterial roads in a move which, according to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, could be costing the Thai economy $30m a day.

On Wednesday, hardline elements of the protest vowed to target Bangkok’s stock exchange and the offices of AeroThai, which is in charge of air traffic control communication for planes using Thai air space, if Ms Yingluck had not resigned by 8pm (1pm GMT).

What is the protest about?

Broadly speaking, Thailand’s protests are pitting the country’s middle class and royalist supporters against Prime Minister’s Yingluck’s rurally-backed government.

The protesters accuse the prime minister of being a proxy for her billionaire brother Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile in Dubai.

Mr Thaksin, formerly Thailand’s prime minister and former owner of Manchester City football club, has been convicted by Thailand’s supreme court of abusing his power whilst in office.

Opposition members have also accused the government of “buying” votes in the north and east of the country.

However, government supporters have accused the opposition of behaving undemocratically.

Worawut Wichaidit, spokesman for the pro-government United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, said: “If (Mr 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.”