Anti-government protesters in Bangkok on Wednesday drove a convoy of 200 cars to the temporary office of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the north of the city, a day after a police crackdown left five dead in the centre.
The convoy was led by Mr. Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary general of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), which has been holding protests in Bangkok since early November to force Yingluck and her caretaker cabinet to resign.
Mr. Suthep vowed to chase Ms. Yingluck out of the offices of the Permanent Secretary of Defence that she and the cabinet have been using as a temporary office since the PDRC closed down Government House in December.
Police attempted to retake the neighbourhood around Government House on Tuesday, resulting in an exchange of fire that left one policeman and four protesters dead and at least 63 injured, according to the Erawan Emergency Medical Centre.
Mr. Suthep said the protesters had been unarmed in Tuesday’s clashes, which the government denied.
A total of 15 people have died and more than 700 have been injured in protest-related violence since the PDRC launched its campaign to paralyse Ms. Yingluck’s government on November 24.
The PDRC is calling for her to step down and for a Senate-appointed prime minister to establish a “people’s assembly” to legislate political reforms before the next election.
The movement’s main goal is to root out the influence of Ms. Yingluck’s brother, fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies have won his parties every election since 2001.
Mr. Thaksin has been living in self-exile since 2008 to avoid a two-year jail sentence on an abuse-of-power conviction.
