REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANGKOK - Thailand's army would increase the number of troops in the capital ahead of Sunday's election, it said on Thursday. Government warned it might not be able to contain violence if anti-government protesters try to stop people voting.
"In addition to the 5,000 soldiers we have already deployed in and around Bangkok to help monitor security, we will be increasing troops around protest sites as there are people trying to instigate violence," army spokesman Winthai Suvaree told Reuters.
The protesters, members of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), had said they would disrupt the ballot as part of their campaign to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but their leader appeared to backtrack.
The government's decision to press ahead with the election has inflamed tension in the capital, Bangkok, where the protesters have blockaded main intersections and forced many ministries to close their doors this month.
About 10,000 police would be responsible for Bangkok security on Sunday and the troops would be on standby. Labour Minister Chalerm Yoombamrung, in charge of a state of emergency imposed last week, urged the protesters not to disrupt the vote.
"If the PDRC do that, people will beat each other to a pulp and nobody can control a situation like that," he told reporters. "The police and soldiers don't have enough manpower to take care of (security) at every polling station."
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said people should not waste time voting but appeared to drop earlier plans to try to obstruct polling.
"Those who want to vote should go and vote," he told supporters as the sun set. "We won't block you from voting otherwise you'll turn around and say we violated your rights."
Demonstrators took to the streets in November in the latest round of an eight-year conflict that pits Bangkok's middle class, southern Thais and the royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The protesters accuse Yingluck of being a puppet of former telecoms tycoon Thaksin, a man they say is a corrupt crony capitalist who disrespected the monarchy and bought elections over the past decade with costly populist giveaways. Thaksin, who denies that, went into self-exile in 2008, shortly before he was sentenced to jail on graft charges he says were politically motivated.
Ten people have died and at least 577 have been wounded in politically related violence since November 30 according to the Erawan Medical Center, which monitors Bangkok hospitals.
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