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You are here: Home / News / World News / Thai PM dissolves house of Parliament, calls elections

Thai PM dissolves house of Parliament, calls elections

December 14, 2013 By Northwest Asian Weekly

By Todd Pitman
Associated Press

https://i0.wp.com/www.nwasianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/32_51/world_thailand.jpg?resize=500%2C375

Protesters who have been demanding Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s ouster will have to be satisfied with her decision to dissolve the lower house of Parliament for now. (Photo by Laura Love)

BANGKOK (AP) – Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Dec. 9 she will dissolve the lower house of Parliament and call elections in an attempt to calm the country’s deepening political crisis.

Yingluck’s announcement came as thousands of anti-government protesters began marching through Bangkok in a “final showdown” against her government.

“After listening to opinions from all sides, I have decided to request a royal decree to dissolve Parliament,” Yingluck said in a televised statement. “There will be new elections according to the democratic system.”

She did not immediately set a date and it was unclear whether the move would ease the country’s political standoff, which deepened Sunday after the main opposition party resigned from the legislature en masse.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban called on supporters to stay peaceful, but many fear the day could end violently when demonstrators converge from nine locations on Yingluck’s office at Government House. More than 60 Thai and international schools in Bangkok have closed as a precaution.

Thailand has been plagued by political turmoil since the army toppled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatras brother Thaksin in a 2006 coup. In broad terms, the conflict pits the Thai elite and the educated middle-class against Thaksins power base in the countryside, which benefited from populist policies designed to win over the rural poor.

“We will rise up. We will walk on every street in the country. We will not be going home again,” said Suthep, whose supporters have occupied the Finance Ministry and part of a vast government complex for more than a week. “The people who will be going home empty-handed are those in the Thaksin regime.”

Since the latest unrest began last month, at least five people have been killed and at least 289 injured. Violence ended suddenly last week, as both sides paused to celebrate the birthday of the nation’s revered king, who turned 86 on Dec. 5. (end)

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Filed Under: World News Tagged With: 2013, Associated Press, Finance Ministry, Government House, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatras, Suthep Thaugsuban, Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Vol 32 No 51 | December 14 - December 20

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