More than 1,000 “Yellow Shirt” royalist protesters rallied outside Thailand’s parliament yesterday to protest the government’s proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Abandoning their trademark yellow garb for multicolored clothing, leaders of the movement accused Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of betraying voters by trying to change the current charter without a referendum.
The Yellows, officially known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy, used to be closely linked to Abhisit, who came to power in 2008 after their protests helped to bring down the former government, but relations have since soured.
“Today you have seen Abhisit’s true colors. Just being good-looking and good at talking is not always good for the people,” Yellow Shirt leader Sondhi Limthongkul said.
“It’s time for his backers to know the truth,” he told the crowd.
The establishment-backed Yellow Shirts are rallying against proposed amendments that would benefit smaller parties in elections.
It is the latest in a series of Yellow Shirt rallies that are seen by many as a general show of strength by the movement rather than inspired by ideology.
Police said that by midday the crowd numbered between 1,000 and 1,200 Yellow Shirts, who rival the mainly poor and working-class “Red Shirts” in Thailand’s color-coded and crippling street politics.
The Red Shirts, who mainly support fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, held mass anti-government rallies earlier this year, which culminated in deadly clashes with troops.
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup following large-scale Yellow Shirt protests, after which the current Constitution was brought in.
His supporters have called for the charter to be scrapped and replaced with the one from 1997, often referred to as the “People’s Constitution.”
The government, meanwhile, has proposed a return to smaller, single-seat constituencies from multi-seat ones and clarification on which international treaties require parliamentary approval.
Parliament will vote on proposals tomorrow after two days of debates, during which the Yellow Shirts intend to continue their protests.
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