BANKGKOK: The Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday urged anti-government protesters to hold talks with the government so that the political tension prevailing in the country could be eased.
Shinawatra made this demand, hours after she survived a no confidence vote in parliament by defeating the move with 247 votes to 134.
In her televised address on Thursday, the Thai prime minister said that “The government does not want to enter into any political games because we believe it will cause the economy to deteriorate.”
“Please call off the protests for the country’s peace,” Shinawatra told protesters who continue to occupy ministries in Bangkok. “I am begging you, the protesters, because this does not make the situation any better,” she said.
Meanwhile, the anti-government protesters cut power at the Royal Thai Police Force headquarters and an adjacent police hospital on Thursday in Bangkok, the Thailand’s capital.
The protesters have occupied several government ministries since the anti-government demonstrations escalated in Bangkok.
The fresh round of protest rallies by anti-government protesters began last month demanding the resignation of Shinawatras because her government had brought an amnesty bill which would pave the way for the former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the brother of incumbent PM Shinawatras, to return without facing any trial.
Though the government later dropped the bill but rallied continued as the opposition protesters claimed that Prime Minister Shinawatra’s government is controlled by her brother.
Thaksin, who was ousted from power by the military in 2006 on charges of corruption and disrespect for the country’s constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej, has been living in exile.
