Thai Election Commission asks for poll delay after clashes

Bangkok: Thailand's Election Commission (EC) called for a February poll to be postponed on Thursday after bloody clashes between riot police and anti-government protesters seeking to topple Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and scuttle the ballot.

One policeman was killed and three were wounded by gunshots fired from an elevated position during the chaos, which erupted as riot police fired teargas and rubber bullets at rock-throwing protesters seeking to break into the venue of an election ballot numbers draw.

About 40 demonstrators were hospitalised, most from teargas, while several were hit by rubber bullets, the Public Health Ministry said.

Hours after the unrest started, the EC issued a statement recommending the government postpone the vote until all sides supported it, an unlikely scenario given that Yingluck's Puea Thai Party is almost certain to win.

The EC's request is a setback for Yingluck as she seeks to renew her mandate in the face of demonstrations by a group calling for a suspension of Thailand's fragile democracy, which they say has been subverted by her influential, self-exiled brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The clashes are also a big blow to Yingluck, who had ordered police to act with restraint, fearing opponents would stir chaos intentionally to weaken the government and trigger an intervention, either by the military or judiciary.

"The February 2 election may not happen if there's no mutual consent between all the related parties," the EC said.

"The election commission would like to ask the government to consider postponing the election until the mutual consent could be reached," it said, adding that it could take that decision itself in a January 2 crisis meeting.

The protesters draw strength from the south, Bangkok's middle class and elite, who call Yingluck a puppet of Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon and populist hero among millions of poor in the north and northeast whose votes have won his parties every election since 2001.

Ekanat Prompan, a spokesman for the protesters, said the group would not change its stance.

'NO POLL UNTIL REFORMS'

"We insist on reforms before the poll. The Yingluck administration has to step down," he said.

Yingluck called a snap election for February 2 in an attempt to deflate weeks of mainly peaceful protests that, at their peak, have drawn 200,000 people on to the streets of Bangkok.

About 2,000 gathered outside Yingluck's home in a Bangkok suburb, although she was not there.

She has not been in the capital for most of the past week, choosing instead to shore up her support in her power base to the north.

She is not due to return to Bangkok until the New Year.

The crisis has dealt a blow to an economy already suffering from weak consumer spending, falling factory output and sluggish growth of exports, worth about 60 per cent of gross domestic product.

The Finance Ministry said on Thursday annual growth of Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy was likely to be 2.8 per cent, below the 3 percent target, with confidence hurt by the unrest.

It expected 4 percent growth next year, possibly 3.5 per cent if the political standoff continued.

The election was made more uncertain on Saturday when the main opposition Democrat Party announced a boycott.

Thailand's oldest party is backed by an establishment of influential aristocrats, royalists, former generals and old-money families who resent Thaksin's rapid rise and say he is entrenching corruption and damaging the country.

On Wednesday, Yingluck proposed the creation of an independent reform council, but only after an election, which the protesters will not allow.

Puea Thai is almost certain to prevail in an election and extend a 12-year winning streak by Thaksin's populist political juggernaut, which has overcome violent street protests and judicial and military intervention in the past.

Thaksin was overthrown in a 2006 coup and has been in self-imposed exile since 2008, when he fled before being sentenced to jail on graft charges he says were politically motivated.

The first two years of Yingluck's government were relatively smooth, until her party miscalculated in November and tried to push an amnesty bill through the Senate that would have allowed her brother to return home a free man.