Monday, September 25, 2023
HomepoliticsDo Thai protestors have the government in checkmate?

Do Thai protestors have the government in checkmate?

As Thailand's anti-government protestors mass in Bangkok for Monday's planned mass protest, signs are emerging they are likely to get their demand for an unelected government, analysts said.

"Elections will almost certainly fail to resolve any of Thailand's conflicts even if they happen," Credit Suisse said in a note. "We now see judicial intervention to appoint an unelected caretaker government as the single most likely scenario."

(Read more: As Bangkok 'shutdown' looms, Thailand's 'Teflon' economy put to the test)

Protests to date have been large, but they've also been in relatively isolated areas of Bangkok. On January 13, that may change, with protestors vowing to "shut down" the capital city with plans to blockade main roads.

The protests, which began in late October, were triggered by parliament's consideration of a government-backed amnesty bill that could have allowed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup d'etat, to return home without facing time in prison for a 2008 graft sentence. The bill also would have granted immunity to politicians implicated in 2010 violent protests which killed about 90 people.

While that bill was dropped, the street protests have broadened out to an explicit call for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is Thaksin's sister, to step down.

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