Pro-poll protesters warned of action

By THE SUNDAY NATION

 

 

POLICE have warned pro-election demonstrators of legal action if they go ahead with their plan to march to Government House on the fourth anniversary of the 2014 coup on Tuesday.

 

The threat came as security authorities voiced concern over possible violence or clashes if the protesters moved their rally from Thammasat University’s Tha Phrachan campus to Government House.

 

Deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said yesterday that forces would keep a close watch for possible intervention by “a third party” having the intention to cause a commotion or violence.

 

“Police all over the country have been instructed to set up security checkpoints. Searches are being conducted for all kinds of weapons” since midnight on Friday until the end of this month, Srivara said.

He added that at least three companies of police officers had been prepared to provide safety for the demonstrators at their protest site inside the university and also along the route of their march, if they opted to move elsewhere.

 

Srivara also warned the group, which calls itself “People Who Want to Vote”, that in exercising their constitutional rights they needed to comply with the law on public assembly.

 

He said their protest inside the university was permitted but that they would not be allowed to move out of the area.

 

“It’s against the law to move out of the permitted protest area. Their march will affect the traffic and police are not authorised to allow a demonstration on the streets,” he said.

 

The Metropolitan Police have notified leaders of the protest that the activists are not allowed to move out of the permitted protest area, according to Srivara.

 

“If they do not comply, we will have to take legal action,” he added.

 

The “People Who Want to Vote” have threatened to stage a march to Government House to submit their call for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to hold the next election in November, as promised previously. 

 

The tentative schedule was postponed until next February after the National Legislative Assembly delayed enactment of the new electoral law by three months.

 

Meanwhile, a source in the ruling junta, the National Council for Peace and Order, said yesterday that security authorities were worried the pro-election group’s planned march to Government House might result in a clash, or at least cause traffic congestion.

 

“We ask the demonstrators not to move out of the protest venue,” the source said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30345823

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-20

Protesting for elections is surely a clear case of sedition under this regime....

I wonder if they would react same, it the protest was against elections?

The usual, "you must obey the law". Having made numerous laws to make protesting an almost impossibility its turning good minded citizens into lawbreakers in an instant. Law making has just become another tool in the repression of citizens rights.

Prayut is just scared.

Little, little man.

 

 

The police, always ready to enforce the law at it's fullest..., but only against government protesters.

"Third party"... I wonder who that third party could be...
Finally uncle will have some excuse to postpone elections again.

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Police all over the country have been instructed to set up security checkpoints. Searches are being conducted...

Ready for a pinch of satire?

 

I live in constant fear that a “Thought Police” will arrest my Thai mother-in-law, who is permanently badmouthing about the military government. She lives at 15/304 Moo 8, Indra Rd., Phra Khanong, (green house). She gets home from work at 7 PM on her red Honda Click.

8 hours ago, Lupatria said:

Ready for a pinch of satire?

 

I live in constant fear that a “Thought Police” will arrest my Thai mother-in-law, who is permanently badmouthing about the military government. She lives at 15/304 Moo 8, Indra Rd., Phra Khanong, (green house). She gets home from work at 7 PM on her red Honda Click.

I will pass this information on to the relevant authority........thank you for informing us and rest assured your name will not be mentioned.............

The absolute lunacy and Alice through the Looking Glass quality of all this is apparent for all to see: people who want to go to the representative-of-the-people building, Government House, and support and urge enactment of what PRAYUT himself proclaimed to the U.S. President and thus the world - an election in November 2018 - are suddenly criminals.

 

So even supporting the great Prayut and his solemn pledge, urging it to be realised and enacted - makes people into seditionists?! 

 

If this is not undiluted madness, lunacy of the highest order, I don't know what is.

 

'The state - it is me,' says (implicitly) Prayut. 'And I can change the rules as I go along as much as I want. If you agree with what I said yesterday and urge it to be enacted  - off with your head. You are a traitor to the great Thai nation (i.e. ME)!'

Edited May 20, 20188 yr by Eligius

7 hours ago, Lungstib said:

  its turning good minded citizens into lawbreakers in an instant.

 

Revolutionary groups positively encourage regimes (by acts of disruption and sabotage) to enact repressive laws which erode the rights and freedoms of the general population.

 

In that way more of the population become alienated from the regime......it is a recruitment tool for the revolutionaries.

 

I guess the regime has not read the book or, more likely, believes itself to be a special case.......possessed of a divine immunity.