BANGKOK (Reuters) -
Protesters trying to topple Thailand's prime minister marched in Bangkok again
on Thursday, testing support for a planned "shutdown" of the capital
next week, and a survey showed consumer confidence slumped last month because
of the crisis.
Caretaker Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has called an election for February 2 but the
protesters, aware she would probably win on the back of support in the rural
north and northeast, want her to step down and be replaced by an appointed
"people's council" to push through electoral reforms.
The protests took off
in November when the government tried to force through a political amnesty bill
that would have let former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother,
return from self-exile without serving jail time for corruption.
On Thursday, the
protesters marched from their camp at Democracy Monument in the historic
quarter, drumming up support for Monday when they plan to blockade main roads
and prevent government ministries from functioning.
The turmoil is the
latest twist in a conflict pitting Bangkok's middle class and royalist
establishment against the mostly rural supporters of Yingluck and Thaksin, who
was ousted as prime minister in a military coup in 2006.
The demonstrations have
been mostly peaceful but sporadic violence has flared since late November and
protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has shown no sign of compromise.
The survey from the
University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce showed consumer confidence fell for
the ninth month in December and was at its lowest level since the beginning of
2012, when the country was recovering from devastating floods.
"The political
situation is still unclear, keeping pressure on consumer confidence. It may not
recover until early in the second quarter, at the soonest," Professor of
Economics Thanavath Phonvichai told a news conference, adding the economy might
only grow 1.0 to 2.0 percent in the first quarter.
Consumer spending
helped prop up the economy in 2013 when exports remained weak, so the drop in
confidence, along with cancellations by tourists and a delay to huge
infrastructure projects, looks likely to hurt growth this year.
A deputy prime minister
said on Monday gross domestic product could grow just 3.0 to 3.5 percent this
year rather than a projected 4.0 to 5.0 percent if 2 trillion baht ($60.50
billion) in public works was delayed by the political vacuum.
The infrastructure
projects are also being contested in the courts by the opposition Democrat
Party, which says they would be open to corruption because of the way
Yingluck's government was managing them outside the normal budgetary process.
The Supreme Court may
rule on Thursday on a separate 350 billion baht flood-management programme,
already suspended by the courts because of the need for environmental studies.
Other judicial problems
are piling up for Yingluck and her Puea Thai Party.
On Tuesday, the
National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) decided to press charges against 308
former lawmakers, mostly from Puea Thai, for trying to change the constitution
to make the Senate a fully elected chamber. The Constitutional Court ruled such
an amendment illegal in November.
The charges could have
implications for the lawmakers' participation in the February 2 election, or
whether they could remain in parliament if they won seats.
On Wednesday, the
Constitutional Court also ruled it had been illegal to try to alter another
part of the constitution to make it easier for the government to sign
international agreements without seeking approval from parliament.
The NACC could take up
the case and, in theory, cabinet members could face a ban from politics.
It is unclear how
quickly the case will proceed but Puea Thai officials have expressed concern at
the speed with which such matters are being processed, in contrast to cases
against opposition figures including protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban that have
languished in the courts for years.
COUP RUMOURS
The judiciary has
intervened several times in the past to throw out governments allied to Thaksin
while rumours of a coup are rife although the army has tried to stay neutral
this time.
Thaksin is reviled by a
royalist establishment, including top generals, that feels threatened by his
rise and a middle class that resents what it sees as its taxes being spent on
wasteful populist policies that amount to vote-buying.
One such policy - a
rice-buying scheme under which the government buys grain from farmers at way
above the market price - has backfired spectacularly because it has priced Thai
rice out of the export market it used to dominate.
Some rice farmers have
joined the protests because they have not been paid for months and the state
bank running the scheme will try to get funds to keep it going by selling a
bond next week. A similar sale flopped in November.
The protesters say
Thaksin runs Yingluck's government from Dubai and they want to eradicate the
political influence of his family by altering electoral arrangements in ways
they have not specified, along with other political reforms.
Any delay in electing a
new government would have economic consequences because her caretaker cabinet
is not supposed to make policy decisions that commit the next administration.
Financial markets have
suffered and the baht recently hit a four-year low, but it has now stabilised
around 33 per dollar and the stock market has also tried to rally, helped by
foreign buying in fairly thin trading.
The main index, which
had at one stage this week fallen around 14 percent since the start of
November, rose 1.1 percent by 0430 GMT on Thursday.
(Additional reporting
by Viparat Jantraprap; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Robert Birsel)
(au.news.yahoo.com)