Demonstrators may temporarily end protests

BANGKOK, January 25 (TNA) - A core leader of the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) has announced that his group might temporarily end its three-month-long street protests if the caretaker government postponed the general election to an indefinite period, from its earlier-scheduled on February 2, 2014. The PDRC leader Thavorn Senneam told journalists, at a PDRC rally site near the Victory Monument in central Bangkok that all the seven PDRC leaders would discuss later on Saturday whether PDRC demonstrators would end their protests temporarily if the caretaker government decided to postpone the new general election indefinitely. Thavorn also asked the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) to discuss, at its planned meeting on Saturday, on the possibility of postponing the national poll after Bangkok's Constitution Court ruled on Friday evening that the EC and the caretaker government could jointly postpone the new general election date. Thavorn urged the EC to bravely propose to the caretaker government to delay the national poll to an indefinite date and to Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, paving the way for a request for His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej to appoint a new prime minister as stated in Article 7 of the Constitution. Thavorn also proposed that politicians of all parties end their political activities in order to enable a domestic political reform, as demanded by PDRC. Thavorn revealed that PDRC leaders will also discuss their movements on January 26, when there will be advance voting nationwide for the new general election. Earlier, Caretaker Minister Attached to the Prime Minister's Office Varathep Rattanakorn told reporters that the caretaker government would postpone the February 2 general election if anti-government protesters ended their demonstrations and promised not to obstruct the new national poll, while there would also be no boycott of the new general election. (TNA)