Thousands of Thailand protesters marched peacefully on government offices on Tuesday in a bid to persuade civil servants to stop work and join their “Bangkok shutdown” campaign.
The campaign, launched on Monday, has occupied seven main intersections in the capital to pressure caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her cabinet to resign.
“I am not staying on to maintain political stability but to uphold the democratic system which belongs to all Thai people,” Ms. Yingluck posted on Facebook.
In the face of mounting mass protests against her government, Ms. Yingluck dissolved parliament in December 2013 and scheduled a general election on February 2, 2014.
That has not satisfied the demonstrators, who want her to step aside to make way for an appointed government that could make reforms to the political system.
The Bangkok shutdown campaign aims to paralyze government offices to force a mass resignation of the caretaker cabinet.
On Tuesday, thousands of protesters marched from the seven sites on the Customs Department, Finance Ministry, Commerce Ministry, Energy Ministry, Labour Ministry, Board of Investment and National Economic and Social Development Board and National Police headquarters to block their entrances, BlueSky TV reported.
Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee called on civil servants, teachers and students to join the protest.
“We will keep fighting until we win, but we will not shut down the airports, electric trains or the Stock Exchange of Thailand because we don’t want to disrupt people’s lives too much,” he posted on his Facebook page. “We only want to force the prime minister to resign.”
