BANGKOK, (Reuters) – Anti-government protesters planned to forge ahead today with efforts to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a day after a disrupted election that is unlikely to settle Thailand’s long-running political conflict.
The demonstrators blocked balloting in a fifth of the country’s constituencies and say Yingluck must resign and make way for an appointed “people’s council” to overhaul a political system they say has been taken hostage by her billionaire brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Sunday’s election, which the main opposition party boycotted, is almost certain to return Yingluck to power and, with voting passing off peacefully across the north and northeast, Yingluck’s supporters will no doubt claim a legitimate mandate.
But the vote is unlikely to change the dysfunctional status quo in a country popular with tourists and investors yet blighted by eight years of polarisation and turmoil, pitting the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of the Shinawatras.
The election was peaceful, apart from a few scuffles, with no repeat of the chaos seen the previous day, when supporters and opponents of Yingluck clashed in north Bangkok. Seven people were wounded by gunshots or explosions.
The protesters, led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban, have rallied in Bangkok since November to try to oust Yingluck. They wanted electoral rules rewritten before any election and have vowed to keep up the protests.
“I’m confident this election won’t lead to the formation of a new government,” Suthep told supporters late on Sunday. He said it was premature for ministers to say the vote had gone smoothly.
“We will gather en masse in Bangkok once more but, before then, we will deal with Yingluck and other ministers. We will surround their houses until they cannot leave,” he said.
However, Suthep is closing protest camps at two of the seven big intersections that his supporters have blockaded since mid-January, at Victory Monument and Lat Phrao, citing security reasons. A third run by an allied group at a huge government administrative complex may also be closed.
Suthep is to lead a march today that will end at another camp at Lumpini Park in the centre of Bangkok.