Pheu Thai Party to petition UN on protesters' obstruction of advance voting

BANGKOK, January 27 (TNA) - Thailand's ruling Pheu Thai Party will lodge a petition with the United Nations over anti-government protesters' obstruction of Sunday's advance voting. Noppadon Pattama, a legal adviser of exiled ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's elder brother, announced on Monday that he, as a Pheu Thai Party member, will submit the written petition on behalf of the ruling party to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, all five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council (UNSC), including the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, as well as the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), as the protesters' obstruction of the advance voting is deemed as the severe violation of basic human rights, the UN Convention on Human Rights and the Thai Constitution. Noppadon called for Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary-general of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), who is also a former deputy prime minister of Thailand's Democrat Party, to take the responsibility for leading the unlawful action to block eligible voters from exercising their electoral right. Noppadon, who is also a former Thai foreign minister, urged Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva to apologize the Thai people for letting his party's leading members to obstruct the nationwide advance voting on January 26. The ex-Thai foreign minister expressed his hope that the Democrat Party would not block voters from casting their ballots on the new general election day, which has been set on February 2, 2014.(TNA)