Bangkok tense as political rivals rally

A Thai opposition protester holds a framed portrait of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit during a rally at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok yesterday.

AFP/Bangkok

Tens of thousands of pro and anti-government demonstrators massed in rival rallies in Bangkok yesterday, as Thailand grappled with its most potent revival of street politics since bloody protests in 2010.

Police estimated that about 90,000 opponents of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her crisis-hit administration had gathered in three sites in the city’s historic centre, calling for her government to be toppled.

Across the city, some 50,000 pro-government “Red Shirts” had arrived late yesterday at a suburban football stadium, police added, in a rally to support Yingluck.

Both groups have vowed to remain in the capital overnight as tension rises in a city which has witnessed several bouts of unrest since divisive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra — Yingluck’s brother — was deposed in a military coup seven years ago.

Aerial footage showed tens of thousands of people crammed into the streets yesterday leading to the city’s Democracy Monument, which has become the focal point of boisterous but so far peaceful anti-government protests.

Addressing a large crowd that remained deep into the night, former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban urged supporters to march to more than a dozen locations across the city today morning.

They include a wide range of state and non-state institutions, such as key army, navy and police bases as well as and several television stations — but apparently not to parliament or Government House where special security laws are in place.

“We will ask them whether they will serve Thaksin, his system, and Yingluck... or if they stand with the people,” he said. “We will not stop fighting until the Thaksin system is gone from Thailand,” he said, adding the marches will set off at 8.30am local time (0130 GMT).

Police spokesman Piya Utayo earlier said authorities were preparing for the marches but pledged “not to use force”.

The Thai capital has already faced weeks of opposition-backed rallies sparked by an amnesty bill that could have allowed the return of Thaksin from self-imposed exile — and would have pardoned those responsible for a deadly military crackdown on his Red Shirt supporters.

The bill was rejected by the senate, but protesters have remained on the streets and are now trying to topple the government, which they say acts as a stooge for Thaksin.

In addition to the botched amnesty bid, Yingluck’s ruling Puea Thai party was buffeted by a Constitutional Court ruling last week that scuppered the party’s plans for a fully elected senate.

Pouncing on the defeats, the opposition Democrat Party, which is driving the anti-government protests, has lined up a battery of challenges to the government. Yingluck faces a no-confidence debate this week — although her party dominates the lower house and should comfortably defeat a move against her.

Yesterday she called for the demonstrations to remain peaceful and within the law.

Government-supporting “Red Shirts” have vowed to stand by her embattled administration, accusing the opposition of trying to provoke intervention by the kingdom’s powerful army.

The group’s leader Thida Thavornseth played down the significance of the anti-government rally but warned the situation could nosedive “if they try to do something violent.”

Thailand, which has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since it became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, has appeared irreconcilably polarised over Thaksin.