Anti-government protesters took a break from weeks of demonstrations on Saturday to prepare for a final push to topple the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban set Monday as the final deadline for their campaign to oust the premier and end the political influence of her elder brother, fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
“On Monday, December 9, this struggle needs to end,” Suthep told a crowd of supporters at the Government Complex in northern Bangkok, which they have occupied since November 27.
Suthep urged Thais to join a final march on Government House, the seat of the administration. He also called on civil servants to strike on Monday. The protests have already claimed four dead and more than 265 injured.
Suthep, a senior member of the opposition Democrat Party who resigned from Parliament to lead the street protest, faces an arrest warrant on sedition charges.
He vowed to give himself up if the demonstration fails to bring down the Government on Monday, although some observers were skeptical.
The Bangkok protests have been going on since November 1, when the Lower House of parliament pushed through an amnesty that would have pardoned Thaksin from a two-year prison sentence for abuse of power.
Although the Bill was later rejected by the Senate, Suthep has led a campaign to paralyse the government since November 24.
He claims Yingluck’s government lost all legitimacy when her party openly rejected a ruling by the Constitutional Court on November 20 that overturned a charter amendment.
Suthep said he wants an appointed Prime Minister and a “People’s Assembly” to reform the political system.