Thai aims to rerun disrupted vote in April

Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (C) arrives at the Royal Thai Air Force headquarters before a cabinet meeting in Bangkok February 11, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

BANGKOK - Thailand's Election Commission said on Tuesday it would try to complete this month's disrupted poll in late April, leaving the country facing another two-and-a-half months in political limbo under a caretaker government with limited powers.

Protesters have been trying since November to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom they see as a stand-in for her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the self-exiled former premier who clashed with the establishment and was ousted in a 2006 coup.

Yingluck called a general election on Feb 2 to try to end the demonstrations, but protesters succeeded in disrupting the vote in about a fifth of constituencies, meaning there is not yet a quorum to open parliament and install a new government.

"Voting for constituencies where elections could not take place on Feb 2 will take place on April 27," Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn told reporters.

The protesters, who are mainly drawn from Bangkok and the south and are backed by the royalist establishment, say former telecoms tycoon Thaksin has commandeered a fragile democracy with populist policies to woo poor voters in rural areas, ensuring victory for his parties in every election since 2001.

The protest group, the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), wants Yingluck to step aside, with political and electoral reforms drawn up by a "people's council", which they hope would rid Thailand of Thaksin's influence for good.

Members of the group prevented voting in much of the south and in parts of Bangkok, strongholds of the opposition Democratic Party, which boycotted the vote and threw in its lot with the protesters.

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