Tensions continue to mount in Thailand as the ruling military junta has signalled that the long postponed elections will be delayed yet again, the fifth delay in less than five years. On January 13, in one of the biggest pro-democracy protests in Thailand in over four years, hundreds of people took to the streets for the third time in a week to criticise the military government for appearing to renege on assurances the election would finally happen on 24 February.
“It’s about keeping up the pressure,” said protest co-leader and prominent pro-democracy activist Nuttaa Mahattana. “It’s about securing the election. Otherwise we have no way to fight any more for the country to return to democracy.”
About 200 people on Sunday held placards and chanted slogans calling for an end to delays in the schedule for voting. A group called “We Vote” said it organised the protest in the capital as well as in other cities across the country. Demonstrations such as these were banned until the military government in December lifted restrictions on political gatherings ahead of the expected poll. Since then, officials have signaled the election due in February may have to be delayed to avoid a clash with preparations for the coronation of King Maha Vajiralongkorn in May.
The government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power in a bloodless coup in 2014. Since then, the military junta has a long record of promising elections, but then finding reasons to delay. Known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), it has repeatedly declared the country is “not ready” for elections. Many opponents believe the current confusion is a deliberate attempt to stall until Prayut is sure that pro-military parties can win enough seats to return him as prime minister.
A key announcement expected last week that would have confirmed the polling day did not happen, sowing widespread confusion and doubts that the government and the election commission have so far failed to clear up. The peaceful protesters descended with little advance notice on a busy intersection in Bangkok’s commercial district. Chanting, banging drums, and waving placards, they demanded the poll go ahead on time.
“I am here to demand that the government does not delay the election,” said 74-year-old protester Ornapa Ngamban. “If they keep delaying, I will send them to a hospital for treatment because there is something wrong with them. Don’t delay the election!”
While many in Thailand are sceptical about the promised elections ever taking place, the February date seemed almost secure after a promising announcement by the election commission late last year. The ban on political activity and gatherings of more than five people was also lifted in late December, the strongest indicator that elections would go ahead. According to Thailand’s new constitution, which skews the political system heavily in favour of maintaining military power, an election must happen by 9 May.
The venue of the protest — Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection — has great symbolism for anti-military protesters. It was the site of a chaotic months-long mass camp-out by thousands of demonstrators in 2010 that brought prolonged disruption to the city. The protests by pro-democracy activists known as the “Red Shirts” was crushed by an army assault in May of that year that left around 50 people dead.
In 2011, following those protests, Thailand’s last official election was held and saw the election of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand’s first female prime minister and the sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who remains in exile after having been ousted in a military coup in 2006. He was convicted of corruption in absentia, charges he insists are politically motivated. The “Red Shirt” movement was spawned from that perceived injustice and others that followed. Thaksin-backed parties have won all five elections since 2001 by large majorities, yet all but one have been ousted — twice by the military and three times by the courts.
Anti-government protests took place again between November 2013 and May 2014, organised by the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a political pressure group led by former Democrat Party parliamentary representative Suthep Thaugsuban. The protests eventually resulted in the removal of incumbent Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the establishment of the military junta.