Thai officials on alert for Monday mass protest

BANGKOK, December 8 (TNA) – Thai government officials are on full alert as anti-government protestors plan their largest rally in Bangkok on Monday, vowing it as their final push to topple the coalition government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Protesters have occupied Bangkok’s landmark Ratchadamnoen Avenue as well as nearby venues where the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is located for more than a month now, in their attempt to oust the coalition, which they have charged of losing legitimacy in governing the country. Manit Techa-apichoke, the BMA’s deputy permanent secretary, has ordered for the City Hall workers to provide help and maximum security to the public. On Ratchadamnoen Avenue, one of the three key rally sites in Bangkok, protesters from upcountry, especially from Southern Thailand, have arrived there and set up tents on the roadside. Demonstrators have been briefed about the nine assembly points where they would meet and then march to their destination -- the Government House – on Monday. Anti-government protesters, led by a former MP under the major opposition Democrat Party Suthep Thaugsuban, will start marching from the Government Complex on Chaeng Wattana Road at 9.39 a.m. on Monday to the Government House. Other groups will follow shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, residents in Thailand’s southern provinces, considered a Democrat Party stronghold, have continued travelling to Bangkok to join Monday’s street action, especially from the holidaying island of Krabi, where up 16 buses left for Bangkok early Sunday. (TNA)