Thailand's Caretaker PM attends national reform forum

BANGKOK, January 16 (TNA) - Thailand's Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is scheduled to attend a national reform forum at the Royal Thai Air Force's headquarters in Bangkok on Thursday afternoon. Suranand Vejjajiva, secretary-general to the caretaker prime minister, told journalists of the schedule, saying that the caretaker prime minister, therefore, cannot meet the Election Commission (EC) to discuss election organization as the election agency had invited. On Wednesday, all five newly-appointed election commissioners did not attend multi-party election talks, invited and sponsored by the caretaker government, to discuss the possibility of the postponement of the new general election (EC) from February 2, 2014 as earlier proposed by the EC. The caretaker prime minister worked at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence in Muang Thong Thani on the outskirts of Bangkok on Thursday morning, when she also followed up updates of domestic political protests. Meanwhile, Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul discussed the situation relating to anti-government protests with security authorities through a video conference. Surapong, who supervises the government-run Center for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), was informed by National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew on police preparations for the arrest of anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban. The national police chief acknowledged that police are trying to arrest Suthep, a former deputy prime minister of Thailand's Democrat Party-turned-secretary-general of the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), and knew where he has stayed during the ongoing political protest, with about 40 bodyguards. According to the national police chief, the number of protesters in Bangkok stood at about 23,000 on January 15 and sometimes dropped to 7,000, as some protesters from the Thai South have already returned home. (TNA)