BANGKOK: Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra easily won a no-confidence vote in parliament yesterday but failed to pacify anti-government protesters who rejected calls for talks and massed by the thousands in the capital.
Waving multicoloured flags, blowing whistles and blocking traffic, protesters rallied outside the heavily barricaded national police headquarters, urging police to join their bid to topple Yinglick and her billionaire brother, ousted PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
“Kill the Thaksin regime,” the protesters shouted.
That’s not so easy. The numbers of the protesters appear to have dwindled since the start of the week, raising questions over what’s next in a conflict that broadly pits Bangkok’s middle classes against the mostly rural supporters of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.
Yingluck, who won a 2011 election by a landslide to become Thailand’s first female prime minister, called on the protesters to clear the streets and enter into talks to avoid confrontation, saying Thailand’s economy was at risk after demonstrators occupied the Finance Ministry on Monday.
“The government doesn’t want to enter into any political games because we believe it will cause the economy to deteriorate,” she said in a televised address.
In a sign support for the protest could be ebbing, police spokesman Piya Uthayo said the “main force” of anti-government protesters in Bangkok was now less than about 15,000, down from at least 100,000 on Sunday, though the total fluctuates through the day and into the evening.
The protesters’ ultimate goals appear increasingly unclear. They have urged civil servants nationwide to resign en masse and for the creation of a democratically elected “people’s assembly” to run alongside parliament and lead electoral reforms. Neither looks achievable, at least in the near term.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva called on Yingluck to “move aside” and said party members would march with the protesters today. reuters
