Thai protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban called on his followers to shut down Bangkok from January 13 to scupper a general election planned for early February, media reports said Thursday.
Suthep, addressing a rally Wednesday night, said the attempt to shut down the capital would last at least a month, The Nation reported.
“I think all Suthep can do is cripple the traffic, so we will be boosting our traffic police,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kissana Phatsanacharoen, deputy spokesman for the government’s Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order.
Police also plan to increase security around the homes of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other government ministers, whom the protesters have vowed to blockade.
Suthep’s People’s Democratic Reform Committee and other anti-government groups have been staging mass protests in Bangkok since early November to force the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck, who dissolved parliament last month and scheduled a snap election on February 2.
Suthep, a former member of parliament in the Democrat opposition party, has vowed to block the polls and force Yingluck to resign. He is demanding political reforms aimed, in part, at ending the political influence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck’s brother.
Protesters have attempted to block political parties from registering their candidates for the elections in Bangkok, leading to a violent confrontation on December 26 that left a demonstrator and a police officer dead.
Registration was blocked by protesters in 28 constituencies in southern Thailand, the traditional stronghold of the Democrat Party.
Thailand’s Election Commission was scheduled to meet on Thursday to decide if the hindered registration process was sufficient reason to postpone the polls.