Thailand protests: PM Prayuth given three days to resign or face ‘higher demands’, as Bangkok emergency measures lifted

Thailand’s prime minister has struggled to stem mounting street demonstrations against his pro-establishment administration

Calls for his resignation among protesters’ ‘three demands’, which they say government has three days to respond to

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Pro-democracy protesters flash the three-finger salute during an anti-government protest in Bangkok on Wednesday night. Photo: EPA

Published: 11:16am, 22 Oct 2020Updated: 9:33pm, 25 Nov 2020

Thai protesters gave Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha three days to resign and meet other key demands that include reforming the monarchy, appearing to reject an olive branch he offered in a televised address.

Thousands of demonstrators on Wednesday night broke through police barricades and barbed wire to march toward Prayuth’s official office. They gathered near the building, known as Government House, soon after the prime minister said his government was prepared to withdraw emergency rules banning large gatherings in the capital if the protest remain peaceful.

“We submitted the letter for Prayuth to resign, which is one of our three demands,” Free Youth, one of the main protest organisations, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday night. “If the government doesn’t give an answer within three days, the people will return with higher demands than before.”

Prayuth has struggled to stem the mounting street demonstrations, which have used Hong Kong-style pop-up rallies to avoid police and defy an emergency decree issued last week. The government has shown no signs of meeting the protesters’ demands, which would upend the royalist elite that has maintained power throughout much of Thailand’s history, but it has also sought to avoid bloodshed that could further roil the economy.

Thailand’s prime minister and former junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha pictured at Government House in Bangkok on Wednesday. Photo: AP

“I will make the first move to de-escalate this situation,” Prayuth said in an address to the nation on Wednesday. On Thursday, the government announced that it would lift emergency measures from 12pm. “The current violent situation that led to the announcement of the severe situation has eased and ended to a situation in which government officials and state agencies can enforce the regular laws,” it said in a statement published in the official Royal Gazette.

The protests are underpinned by years of sluggish growth now exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has put the Thai economy on course for its worst performance ever by derailing the two main drivers: tourism and trade. The benchmark SET Index of stocks has lost 23 per cent this year.