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Unrest to continue in Bangkok unless elections delayed: Thai opposition
ABC Radio Australia - January 28, 2014
Mr Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party and former prime minster, told Newsline the upcoming election is unconstitutional, and therefore will not be accepted by anti-government protesters.
"A decision has to be made whether in principle the prime minister feels that it would make sense to set a new date for elections," Mr Abhisit said.
"If she does that, I think the next step, logical step, is for all political parties, civil society, to come together and reach some kind of roadmap. But if she decides that she would want to go ahead with February 2 anyway, then obviously the confrontation will continue."
Mr Abhisit says prime minster Yingluck Shinawatra's government could have avoided the latest unrest, which saw one anti-government protester shot dead on the weekend, if it had met with the election council earlier. "I felt that if she met the Election Commission on Saturday, maybe find a solution, the tragedy on Sunday wouldn't have happened," Mr Abhisit said.
PM to meet election commission
Ms Yingluck is meeting with Thailand's Election Commission on Tuesday to discuss the election date after a constitutional court ruling opened the way for a delay in the face of months of anti-government protests in the capital.
"As election officials, it is our job to make sure elections are successful, but we also need to make sure the country is peaceful enough to hold the election. We don't want it to be bloody," Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a commission member, said.
The commission says the election planned for next week should be postponed for at least a month, warning of more bloodshed after violent clashes over the weekend.
Ms Yingluck's government led the country through a relatively peaceful period between 2011-2013 until her Puea Thai Party's reform agenda in November.
The government tried to force through an amnesty bill which would have allowed her brother Thaksin to return a free man despite a 2008 jail sentence handed down for corruption he says was politically motivated.
"I think prime minister Yingluck had a golden opportunity to pull the country out of this cycle," Mr Abhisit said. "All she had to do was to stay off the issue of amnesty, and we would have had maybe four years of completing the term and normal elections being held."
"We warned her about that. Everyone warned her about that. But she decided to push ahead. This conflict will never go away until former prime minister Thaksin accepts the verdict of the court." (ABC/wires)
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