Thai protest leader demands PM step down

Thomas Maresca | Special for USA TODAY

BANGKOK — Political turmoil escalated this weekend as the leader of anti-government protests called for a takeover of all key government agencies, including the office of the prime minister.

After declaring a "People's Victory Day," opposition leader Suthep Thaugsuban said he met with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in person Sunday evening, giving her an ultimatum of two days to step down from power.

"I only came to tell Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra that right now, people all over Thailand have stood up to show their ownership of Thailand," said Suthep, who called for a nationwide strike by all civil servants and state employees Monday.

At least three people were killed and 103 injured in skirmishes throughout the weekend, and police continued to use tear gas and water cannons to subdue large crowds Sunday. The government mobilized about 3,000 soldiers and military police before Sunday's protests.

The protest group, which calls itself the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), has waged a campaign to oust the government of the prime minister and her Pheu Thai Party since Monday.

"We want this government out of the country," said Narat Kasiwat, 25, a protester near Bangkok's Metropolitan Police Bureau on Sunday afternoon. "Today is V-Day. We expect to take over every government department."

Panich Viikitsreth, a former member of Parliament with the Democrat Party, was with a crowd of a few hundred outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "We're asking them to open the door peacefully," he said.

The opposition claims the government is deeply corrupt and still under the control of Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed former prime minister who has lived in Dubai since being convicted on criminal corruption charges in 2008.

Sunday, wave after wave of protesters — some ready for battle in gas masks and helmets, others casually dressed and taking selfies — surged forward at police headquarters and the Government House but were repeatedly driven back by tear gas and water cannons. As darkness fell, they had not been able to occupy their targets.

The government's national security adviser, Sean Boonpracong, declared the day's defense operations — which he said followed international standards of crowd control — a success.

"When the day's done, we are still whole, and no one got hurt," he said. "And they did not accomplish their objective."

Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok went on the air Sunday night to announce that the government was still in control and to urge citizens to stay off the streets until 5:30 a.m. Monday local time.

The PDRC protesters are calling to replace the government with a "People's Assembly," a non-elected council of leaders. That group would establish a parliament and implement a six-point national agenda, according to a statement from the PDRC.

This wave of political unrest started with a blanket amnesty bill pushed through the lower house of parliament in October, which many saw as a ploy to allow Thaksin to return from self-imposed exile.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets daily, blowing whistles and calling for the bill to be scrapped. Bowing to public pressure, the Thai Senate voted it down Nov. 11, but by then, political scars had reopened, and adversaries of Thaksin saw an opportunity to press their cause.

Thaksin's main opponents come from Bangkok and the south and represent the traditional bureaucratic elite of Thailand. His supporters are largely drawn from the rural, northern parts of the country, where his populist economic policies such as public health care and agricultural subsidies have won him a devoted following.

Once a negligible political force, his base has grown to represent the electoral majority, as Thaksin and his related parties have won every election they've entered since 2001. In 2006, a military coup ousted Thaksin, then the prime minister. And in 2008, Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolved the People's Power Party (PPP), composed primarily of Thaksin allies, over charges of electoral fraud.

In the most recent election, in 2011, Yingluck won in a landslide with a margin of more than 4 million votes out of 26 million cast.

The opposition claims Thaksin has rigged the electoral system and buys votes. Other observers say the traditional elite of Thailand have not come to grips with the reality of a changing country.

"(The opposition) are desperate now," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. "They have lost faith in electoral democracy, and they are now openly calling for unelected authority."

Contributing: The Associated Press