Anti-government protesters today besieged the Government House in the Thai capital to prevent caretaker Premier Yingluck Shinawatra from working there, even as the Election Commission and ministers failed to strike a deal on holding elections to 28 seats in parliament.
People's Democratic Reform Committee (PRDC) leader Suthep Thaugsuban led a march of thousands of demonstrators, who set up the stage from where their leaders will take turns to speak out against the government.
Suthep and other core leaders then helped block the Government House by pouring cement into the moulds of the barriers.
"I fear, I may offend the military by laying siege to the Government House, but if I don't, I will seize it. We are sure that our protest will bring down Thaksin Regime," Suthep told a cheering crowd.
"If we don't, then Thaksin's son, Panthongtae or Oak will surely become the new prime minister. I pledge to all my brothers and sisters that I have the spirit to fight until the bitter end."
Meanwhile, Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn met with some senior ministers and legal advisers from Yingluck's ruling Pheu Thai party to discuss the holding of in 28 seats where there was no balloting during the February 2 election boycotted by the opposition Democrat Party.
After the meeting, caretaker Deputy Premier Pongthep Thepkanchana said the government had suggested that the poll panel should hold fresh elections where voting was cancelled within 30 days or by March 30, when Senate elections will be held.
Voting should not be delayed until April as the panel had earlier proposed, Pongthep said.
A total of 28 constituencies in southern Thailand, a stronghold of the opposition, did not vote in the February 2 polls.
Earlier in the day, Suthep challenged Chalerm Yubamrung, the director of the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO), to take Yingluck to work there. Chalerm will be regarded as a coward if he fails to do so, Suthep was quoted as saying by Nation online.
Yesterday, the director of the CMPO that is overseeing the response to the protests, warned that rally sites in the vicinity of the premier's office, known as Government House, will be seized back from protesters and there will be no more talks since previous attempts had failed.
Police are attempting to reclaim key official buildings after more than three months of mass protests by opposition Democrat Party backed supporters seeking to topple Yingluck's government and curb the political domination of the Shinawatra family.
Yingluck has been operating from various locations as the Government House has been blockaded by the protesters for about two months.
Suthep set an impossible condition for dialogue by saying he would only talk with former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is in self-exile.
He was of the view that Thaksin, the brother of Yingluck who is in self-exile to avoid a jail term, would not return to Thailand and risk being arrested as he had been convicted for abuse of power.
He claimed Thaksin, ousted in a coup in 2006 and lives in Dubai, was the de-facto leader of the caretaker government.
The demonstrators want Yingluck to step down in favour of an unelected "People's Council" to carry out reforms to tackle graft and alleged vote-buying before new elections are held.
Yingluck's government held a general election on February 2 which was boycotted by the Democrat Party. Its supporters also blocked polling stations in several places in Bangkok and in the country's South, a stronghold of the opposition.
Yingluck is also facing the ire from rice farmers who have not been paid for crops pledged into a controversial state subsidy scheme. The government has promised to pay them their overdue amount soon.
The policy of buying rice from growers at above market prices has accumulated losses of at least USD 4.46 billion. An anti-graft body is probing accusations that Yingluck was negligent in her role as nominal head of the scheme.
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