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 Police estimated more than 200,000 protesters rallied across the
capital on Sunday to demand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
resign. She has called a snap election for Feb. 2 to defuse
tension but the opposition Democrat Party will boycott the poll and
demonstrators are determined to scuttle it.
The stalemate is all too familiar after eight years of deadlock
broadly between supporters and opponents of Yingluck's brother,
Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon whose populist political machine has
won every election since 2001 with millions of votes from the rural
poor in the north and northeast.
Opposed to Thaksin is a Bangkok-based establishment of top generals
and old-money families threatened by his rapid rise and angered by
his ability to influence politics from self-imposed exile in Dubai.
They have backed protests against Thaksin's governments since 2005
and the party they favor, the Democrats, has not won an election in
21 years.
Yingluck refuses to quit and said the Democrats' election boycott
would complicate the political reforms all sides want.
"Every parliament member needs to take part in the election to
protect this democratic system," she said on Sunday. "If they don't
participate ... how can anything concrete be made under this
legislature?"
The seemingly irresolvable conflict has hit the currency in
Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy after the weekend rallies
that left the outcome no clearer. The baht touched a low of 32.71 to
the dollar, its weakest level since March 2010, according to Thomson
Reuters data.
The protesters are led by Suthep Thaugsuban, a former Democrat
heavyweight whose campaign is less about policy than ridding
politics of the billionaire Shinawatra family.
Watched by police and soldiers, several thousand protesters sat in
front of the gates of a sports stadium to try to block the
registration process, which lasts until the end of the week.
By mid-morning, only nine of the 34 parties that showed up to
register were successful.
Election Commission member Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said the deadline
could be extended if not enough candidates had registered, while
police threatened jail terms or stiff fines if protesters impeded
the process.
DRUMMING UP SUPPORT
Yingluck has spent the past week travelling in her party's northern
strongholds, shoring up support as her credibility in Bangkok
dwindles amid persistent protests that seemed unlikely a few months
ago, when even her brother's fiercest critics appeared to tolerate
her government.
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That all changed after a costly blunder in November, when her Puea
Thai party tried to force an amnesty bill that would have nullified
Thaksin's 2008 graft conviction and allowed him to return home a
free man. The Senate rejected the bill and Puea Thai withdrew it,
but the damage was done and protests mounted, denouncing Yingluck as
Thaksin's puppet.
The influence of 64-year-old Thaksin has divided Thailand. Critics
say he is a tax-dodging crony capitalist who abused his power and is
disloyal to the monarchy, which he denies. But to millions of
farmers and other poor outside Bangkok, Thaksin is a hero whose
policies improved their lives.
Political concerns not only hit the baht on Monday, but sent Thai
stocks to a 15-week low at the break, down 1.2 percent to 1,326.67
points. Trade volume was just 0.38 percent of the full-day average
over the past 30 sessions.
Analysts said the bid to block the election and the unrelenting
deadlock cast a pall of unease over the market.
The impasse is unlikely to end soon. While the major protests have
been big in number and high on rhetoric, they have not stopped the
government from functioning, prompting concerns that either the
demonstrators or other protagonists might try to stir violence to
unseat the government.
The Democrat Party on Saturday said it would not run in the election
because Thailand's democratic system had been distorted. That would
leave Puea Thai running against only smaller parties and, according
to some commentators, unlikely to wean itself off Thaksin once it
forms another government.
"Is there anything new we can expect from the Puea Thai Party? ...
No, nothing. The party and the government will continue to be
remotely controlled from Dubai," wrote Bangkok Post columnist Veera
Prateepchaikul.
(Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat;
writing by Martin
Petty and Paul Tait; editing by Robert Birsel)
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