Protesters ducked behind a barricade after hearing three gunshots in Bangkok early Wednesday. John Minchillo/Associated Press

Thousands March Against Thai Leader in 3rd Day of Protests

International New York Times | 15 Jan. 2014

BANGKOK — Thousands of antigovernment protesters opposed to elections marched through a main commercial and business district in Bangkok on Wednesday, the third day of what they call the shutdown of the city.

Highlighting the threat of violence in the deeply polarized country, a protester was injured in a shooting and the compound of a former prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, was damaged by a small explosion. Mr. Abhisit, the head of the Democrat Party, which is allied with the protesters and is boycotting the elections, was not home at the time of the blast. Both the shooting and the explosion occurred overnight.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the main target of the protesters, said Tuesday that she was “protecting democracy” and would not resign.

“Democracy belongs to the entire Thai people,” she said in a Twitter message.

Ms. Yingluck’s party is despised by many southerners and members of the Thai elite, but it remains popular in the northern half of the country and is widely expected to win scheduled elections.

The leader of the protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, who has been charged by the authorities with rebellion, threatened on Tuesday to “close all government offices” if Ms. Yingluck did not step down in the coming days.

“And if she remains stubborn, we will take custody of the prime minister and all ministers,” he said to a cheering crowd at a major Bangkok intersection blocked by protesters. Mr. Suthep advised government ministers to “send their wives and children to somewhere so that they can escape when the emergency takes place.”

Protesters are demanding the “eradication” from politics of Ms. Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon and former prime minister. Ms. Yingluck called elections, scheduled for Feb. 2, as an early response to the protests. But the demonstrators are opposed, arguing that the vote would provide the Shinawatra clan greater domination of the political system. They would like, instead, to institute an alternative form of government involving an unelected “people’s council” that would replace Parliament.

The demonstrators say they hope to show the impotence of the government by paralyzing parts of the capital — and they appear to have partially achieved this goal. But it remains to be seen how long they can sustain their protests, especially if businesses and residents inconvenienced by street blockades turn against them.

Political observers say there are no angels among the leading personalities involved in the standoff.

Mr. Thaksin has been accused several times of using the powers of the state — and the weight of his political party — to further his personal interests. When he was in power from 2001 to 2006, Mr. Thaksin intimidated the media and sought to control many government institutions that are meant to be independent.

Mr. Suthep, a career politician and former deputy prime minister, says he is fighting to banish corruption and the Shinawatra clan. But he has been embroiled in a number of corruption scandals himself. In addition, when he was in power in 2010 a crackdown against protesters supporting Mr. Thaksin left more than 90 people dead, and Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation has said he was among those “ordering the military to use live ammunition against protesters.”

He faces murder charges but has said he is innocent. He has not appeared in court, he says, because he is too busy leading the protests.

A spokeswoman for the United States State Department, Marie Harf, on Monday repeated a call for a strengthening of “democratic principles” in Thailand. She also applauded the “restraint” showed by the government toward the protesters.

Protest leaders and the Democrat Party, which is boycotting the election, have rejected Ms. Yingluck’s offer to discuss possibly delaying the election. Until this week the government had been firm that there were no provisions in the law to postpone elections.

Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, an election commissioner who has been vocal in his skepticism that elections can take place on time, said the country risked destruction. “Don’t claim the limitations of the law and allow the country to be destroyed,” he said.

Yet the Election Commission said it would not attend the government’s proposed forum on the issue, saying a large meeting would be unwieldy. Ms. Yingluck’s governing party on Tuesday accused the commission of dragging its feet, “playing politics” and “opposing” the elections.

Mr. Somchai last month appeared to make his case for a delay. “We used to think that elections were the way to solve problems in society, like starting over,” he said, adding that he feared violence. “It’s as if it’s not worth it to have elections.”

In a city as vast as Bangkok, many areas were unaffected by the protests, which are concentrated in the central business district.

Protesters retreated from at least two major intersections and in some areas the crowds were thinner than on Monday, the first day of the shutdown. Still, thousands of protesters remained on the streets. Bangkok’s largest shopping malls, which are in the heart of the protest area, said they would close early. And the Bank of Thailand reported that 135 bank branches were either closed or had shortened their operating hours.

Despite an announcement by the government last week that thousands of soldiers had been called up to protect the capital, the presence of security forces remained very light, with protesters directing traffic in the city’s central business district. Groups of protesters marched to government offices and gathered in front of the Police Headquarters, where they shouted that the police were “slaves” to Mr. Thaksin.