Thai Protesters Continue Blocking Election Registration Venues

BANGKOK, December 31 (TNA) - Anti-government protesters continued blocking venues for registration of constituency candidates contesting for the February 2 general election in eight southern provinces of Thailand for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday, officials said. The blockade had forced Election Commission (EC) officials to be unable to perform their duties in the eight southern provinces, which are stronghold of the major opposition Democrat Party. The party has boycotted the general election. The eight southern provinces are Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Phatthalung, Chumphon, Trang, Songkhla, Phuket and Krabi. In one of the incidents, protesters of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) surrounded Tinsulanonda Stadium in Songkhla province which is the venue for the constituency registration in the province. Many of them also stormed into the stadium shortly before the registration process was due to start at 8.30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT). Chokechai Polwattana, EC director of Songkhla, later told the protesters that the blockade had forced EC officials to be unable to perform duty. Therefore, it was necessary to close the office for the fourth day today. The protesters then cheered for their victory and vowed to return to the venue again on New Year’s Day which is the last day of the constituency registration process. According to EC secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong, a total of 642 candidates running under the constituency system for the election had registered themselves in the past three days. So far none of the candidates have been able to register in 38 constituents in those eight southern provinces due to the massive protests, said Mr. Puchong. He said the EC would continue to adopt three principles for use in the ongoing registration. They include using only civilian sites, EC officials will temporarily suspend duty in case of troublesome and report the indent to police, and prospective candidates will have to lodge complaints to police whenever they are unable to register so that EC provincial authorities could take further action. (TNA)