CAPO to extend ISA to cope with demonstrations in May

BANGKOK, April 25 (TNA) - The caretaker government-run Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO) will propose to the Cabinet next week for the extension of the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Bangkok and targeted areas in its peripheral provinces, while intensifying law enforcement to cope with mass rallies of both anti and pro-government demonstrators next month. Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul, who is also CAPO Advisory Chairman, told journalists on Friday that the CAPO will request the Cabinet, at its weekly meeting next Monday, to approve the ISA extension in all areas in Bangkok and some targeted areas in its surrounding provinces for another 30 or 60 days, as part of the CAPO's preparation for dealing with the planned mass rallies of both anti and Npro-government demonstrators in May, as the ISA, which has been enforced since late last year, expires on April 30. The Cabinet's agenda of its weekly meeting earlier this week did not include the proposal to extend the ISA enforcement. Surapong said the CAPO will also assign Deputy National Police Chief Police General Worapong Chewprecha to increase both police and military personnel from the current 58 companies to cope with the anti and pro-government demonstrations. Touching on a proposal by Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party, who is a former Democrat prime minister, to find a solution to the ongoing domestic political deadlock through meetings and discussions with concerned parties, Surapong opined, apparently to be sarcastically, that the Democrat Party leader should first ask for a “permission” from Suthep Thaugsuban, his party's secretary general and a former Democrat deputy prime minister, who is now secretary-general of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), to see whether the PDRC leader agrees with his idea. On a plan by the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) to confer with the Cabinet next Wednesday on a new date for the next general election, the caretaker deputy prime minister suggested that the EC be able to answer who should bear the responsibility for expenses spent on Thailand's failed general election held on February 2, 2014, as the Cabinet will have to consider on allocating a new budget for organising the fresh general election. Meanwhile, the Democrat Party leader, accompanied by his party's several senior members and business persons, began his discussions with concerned parties on finding a solution to the domestic political strife, first meeting with Permanent Secretary for Justice Kittipong Kittiyarak on Friday morning. The PDRC leader, in the meantime, continued leading his anti-government protesters to visit state enterprises, the headquarters of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI) on Friday morning, during which he urged THAI staff to join his movement in ousting the caretaker government. (TNA)