‘Yellow-Shirts’ vote to form a political party
Members of Thailand’s yellow-shirt protest movement have decided to form a political party creating a potentially influential party but did not rule out the possibility of returning to street protests.
More than 30,000 supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) dressed in their trademark colorful shirts converged on a sports stadium in a town near Bangkok and voted to transform the grass-roots campaign against corruption into a formal political party. The party vowed to fight for a cleaner, more accountable ‘new politics’.
The agreement came on the second day of the meeting to mark the anniversary of 193 day street protest which began on 25-May of last year to oust the People Power Party which was in power during that time.
The new party which is yet to be named could further elevate Sondhi Limthongku – the primary force behind the movement.
The latest unrest in Thailand has hit tourism badly and dented investor confidence at a time when the country is feeling the affects of global meltdown. The state economic planning agency has confirmed that the GDP contracted by 7.1 % – the worst performance since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Analysts expected the economy to pick up in the coming months but that would depend on the absence of political turmoil.