REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANGKOK - A state anti-corruption panel is due to give a ruling on Thursday on irregularities in a rice-buying scheme, that the government introduced to support farmers, that could give ammunition to opponents of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The sub-committee of the National Anti-Corruption Commission is due to deliver an opinion on the government's rice intervention scheme, a money-guzzling subsidy program that has been a lightning rod for government critics.
Protesters were trying to paralyze ministries to force the government to resign said they would target revenue offices on Thursday, but their numbers appeared to be dwindling and ministers say the movement could be running out of steam. Many ministries and state agencies have been closed to avoid confrontation with demonstrators, but the government says operations and services are being maintained by civil servants working at home or from back-up offices.
The unrest, which flared in November and escalated this week when demonstrators led by former opposition politician Suthep Thaugsuban occupied main intersections of the capital, Bangkok, is the latest chapter in an eight-year conflict.
The political fault line pits the Bangkok-based middle class and royalist establishment against the mostly poorer, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier ousted by the army in 2006 who is seen as the power behind her government.
In a speech at the blockaded Asoke intersection late on Wednesday, Suthep told protesters to target revenue offices, which come under the Finance Ministry, on Thursday.
"Protesters from every area must find out where the nearest revenue office is and close it," he said.
Some hardline activists threatened to blockade the stock exchange and an air traffic control facility on Wednesday if Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had not stepped down by 8 pm (1300 GMT) but they made no move to do that.
Yingluck dissolved parliament in December in an attempt to end the protests and set an election for February 2. On Wednesday she invited protest leaders and political parties to discuss a proposal to push back the election date, but her opponents snubbed her invitation. After the meeting, the government said the poll would go ahead as scheduled and officials said the protests were losing momentum.
Thaksin's rural and working-class support has ensured he or his allies have won every election since 2001 and Yingluck's Puea Thai Party seems certain to win any vote held under present arrangements.
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