Thai protesters urged to stop Bangkok shutdown
Iran Press TV
Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:10PM GMT
Thai authorities have called on anti-government protesters to end the occupation of government buildings as part of their "Bangkok shutdown" campaign, vowing there will be no violence under a pre-condition.
Thailand's Foreign Minister, Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who also heads the government's crisis committee--known as the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO)--said on Saturday that the committee would talk with protest leaders to stop blockading the official buildings and not to interfere in Sunday's advance voting for the next week's general elections.
Although insisting that there would be no violence to disperse the demonstrators in the capital, he asserts, "Any move seen as obstructing advance voting on Sunday and on February 2 is illegal, subject to either a jail sentence or a fine, or both."
This is while Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said on Saturday that her government is ready to postpone the February election if the opposition ends its daily protests.
Yingluck's offer comes following a ruling by the country's Constitutional Court on Friday, which opened the possibility for a delay, citing that the country is too unstable to hold an election.
The Thai premier called the vote after dissolving the lower house of parliament last December in an attempt to resolve the political crisis in the country.
Thailand has been the scene of massive protests in recent months, aiming at overthrowing the government.
The demonstrations were triggered on October 31 by a failed amnesty bill that could have allowed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, to return without serving a jail term for a corruption conviction.
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