BANGKOK (Reuters) - Anti-government
protesters in Thailand are to stage mass rallies in coming days to try
to get a new prime minister installed, but their leader said if this
final push in a six-month fight did not succeed, he would surrender to
the authorities on May 27.
"It's time. This show has been going on for so long," Suthep
Thaugsuban told a meeting of supporters from around the country on
Saturday. "It must come to an end. Whether it will be a happy ending
depends on the great mass of people in this country and our state
officials."
Thailand has been in turmoil since the protests flared up in
November, the latest phase in nearly a decade of antagonism between
the Bangkok-based establishment and supporters of former premier
Thaksin Shinawatra, who won huge support among the rural and urban
poor but was ousted by the army in 2006.
Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was forced to step down as
prime minister on May 7 when the country's Constitutional Court
found her and nine ministers guilty of abuse of power.
Remaining cabinet members selected Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong
Boonsongphaisan to replace her, but the anti-government protesters
led by Suthep said they had no authority to do that and want all the
ministers replaced.
Suthep told Saturday's meeting - held in Government House, where the
prime minister normally works but which he has commandeered - that
the mass rallies would start on Monday.
Ahead of that, he would meet with state company officials and
sympathetic retired civil servants on Sunday to draw up plans for a
new administration and then he wanted to meet serving top civil
servants on Thursday.
Thailand has not had a lower house of parliament since December,
when Yingluck dissolved the house and called a general election.
Voting was disrupted by Suthep's supporters and the election was
then declared void by the Constitutional Court. A proposed rerun on
July 20 is looking increasingly unlikely.
The upper house Senate, half of whose members are appointed and many
of them establishment figures with views close to Suthep, is trying
to break the impasse.
On Friday, after a meeting of a limited group of senators, its newly
elected speaker said the Senate was prepared to choose an interim
prime minister but members wanted to speak to political parties
first. They will meet the government on Monday.
Suthep wanted more immediate action and is now putting pressure on
the Senate to hurry things along.
MISSED DEADLINES
He has set numerous deadlines for the government to step down in
recent months and issued many ultimatums, including telling civil
servants and the security forces to report to him, to little effect.
Acting premier
Niwatthamrong was forced to flee from a meeting with election
officials on Thursday when Suthep led his supporters into the air
force compound where the talks were being held.
Niwatthamrong runs a caretaker government with limited authority and
Senate head Surachai argues that a prime minister with full powers
is needed to get the country out of the political and economic mess.
Data on Monday is expected to show the economy contracted in the
first quarter as confidence slumped and investment dried up because
of the political crisis. Some economists fear the economy is
slipping into recession.
Pro-Thaksin "red shirts" camped in their thousands on the outskirts
of Bangkok say they will defend the government if it looks like
being forced out.
Thaksin, who now lives in exile to avoid serving a jail sentence for
abuse of power, is a former telecoms tycoon who is adored by the
poor for policies that raised their living standards from 2001.
Opponents say he was corrupt, authoritarian and disrespectful
towards the monarchy.
Twenty-eight people have been killed in political violence since
November, including three during a gun and grenade attack on
anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Thursday.
The attack prompted the army chief to warn that his men "may need to
come out in full force" if violence escalated.
(Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Matt Driskill)
