Crisis in Thailand after killing of protester
2 April 2014 6:30 AM IST
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the violence which brought the death toll to 24, with scores wounded, since protesters took to the streets in November in a bid to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office and erase the influence of her brother, ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Yingluck has resisted mounting pressure to step down and her ‘red shirt’ supporters have called for a mass rally in Bangkok on Sunday, raising the risk of further confrontation. ‘We received three (of the) injured protesters at the hospital. One succumbed to a gunshot wound to the head,’ an official at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok said.
In a rare piece of good news for Yingluck, who is battling negligence charges brought by the national anti-graft commission, unofficial results of Thailand’s weekend Senate election suggest a pro-government majority. Yingluck has been charged with dereliction of duty for her role in overseeing a disastrous state rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses. Should the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) forward the case to the Senate for possible impeachment, she could be removed from office.
That would require the votes of three-fifths of the senators. Thailand’s 150-seat Senate is made up of 77 elected senators. The other 73 are appointed and are largely seen as opponents of the government. Preliminary results released by the Election Commission on Monday show winning candidates in the north and northeast, Thaksin strongholds, are largely linked to the ruling Puea Thai Party and Thaksin’s now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party.
Yingluck has resisted mounting pressure to step down and her ‘red shirt’ supporters have called for a mass rally in Bangkok on Sunday, raising the risk of further confrontation. ‘We received three (of the) injured protesters at the hospital. One succumbed to a gunshot wound to the head,’ an official at Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok said.
In a rare piece of good news for Yingluck, who is battling negligence charges brought by the national anti-graft commission, unofficial results of Thailand’s weekend Senate election suggest a pro-government majority. Yingluck has been charged with dereliction of duty for her role in overseeing a disastrous state rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses. Should the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) forward the case to the Senate for possible impeachment, she could be removed from office.
That would require the votes of three-fifths of the senators. Thailand’s 150-seat Senate is made up of 77 elected senators. The other 73 are appointed and are largely seen as opponents of the government. Preliminary results released by the Election Commission on Monday show winning candidates in the north and northeast, Thaksin strongholds, are largely linked to the ruling Puea Thai Party and Thaksin’s now-defunct Thai Rak Thai party.
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