Thai caretaker PM urges military personnel to check voting rights

Thai caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday during a meeting of Defense Council asked the top military brass to instruct military personnel to check their voting rights ahead of the upcoming Feb. 2 election. The meeting was moved from defense ministry to Royal Thai Air Force headquarters to avoid protesters, reported the Nation newspaper. Meanwhile, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, secretary general of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) Thursday led thousands of protesters marching from the Asoke rally site to defy the Emergency Decree. In another development, all major government and state enterprise offices in southern Songkhla province have been closed by protesters. However, all hospitals and police stations are still under normal operation. In an attempt to end anti-government protests, caretaker Labor Minister Chalerm Yubamrung said Thursday that the Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) is considering using the Emergency Decree to imprison leading members of the PDRC. Chalerm, who is also director of the CMPO, said he plans to issue orders to handle the PDRC's Bangkok Shutdown, which started from Jan. 13. Chalerm on Thursday stressed that the government would not use violence against protesters but to implement the emergency decree to capture PDRC's core leaders in order to stop protests. Chalerm said that he has a list including names of groups of capitalists who support the PDRC's activities, saying that they would be subject to swift legal action if found to be violating the law. The caretaker government on Tuesday invoked the Emergency Decree in the capital and some nearby areas, effective from Wednesday and for 60 days.