BANGKOK, Dec 26: Thai police fired teargas and rubber bullets at anti-government protesters in the capital Bangkok today after demonstrators tried to disrupt planning for a February election, the first such incident in nearly two weeks.
The confrontation between police and about 500 protesters angry with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra came a day after the government again extended a special security law by two months.
The law, widened last month to cover all of the capital and nearby areas, allows police to ban gatherings, block routes, impose curfews and carry out searches, although such actions have been used sparingly.
Yingluck remains caretaker prime minister after calling a snap election for February 2 in an attempt to deflate weeks of mainly peaceful protests that, at their peak, have drawn 200,000 people on to the streets of Bangkok.
National Security Council head Paradorn Pattanathabutr said the police response today did not mark a change of policy.
“We have warned them and informed them every time before firing teargas,” Paradorn told Reuters.
Seven protesters were taken to hospital with minor injuries, a public health official said.
The protesters draw their strength from Bangkok’s middle class and elite who dismiss Yingluck as a puppet of her self-exiled elder brother, former premier and telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin and Yingluck have their power base in the rural north and northeast. Their opponents accuse Thaksin of manipulating the poor in those areas with populist policies such as cheap healthcare and easy credit.
The protesters gathered outside a Bangkok gymnasium where Thailand’s Election Commission is working through the process of registering candidates for the February election.
Media said representatives of a number of parties planning to contest the election were inside the building at the time. Calls by Reuters reporters to officials inside could not be connected.
(AGENCIES)
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