Thai protesters target PM's party headquarters

BANGKOK: Hundreds of police were deployed Friday at Thailand’s ruling party headquarters as defiant opposition protesters set their sights on a new high-profile target, seeking to intensify their fight to bring down the government.

Boisterous demonstrators have besieged key ministries in Bangkok in the biggest street protests since mass rallies against the previous government three years ago degenerated into the kingdoms worst civil strife in decades.

The protesters -- a mix of royalists, southerners and the urban middle class sometimes numbering in their tens of thousands -- are united by their loathing of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The controversial former telecoms tycoon was ousted in a coup in 2006 and lives in self-imposed exile, but he is widely believed to be the real power behind the embattled government of his younger sister, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

Protesters are demanding the end of the "Thaksin regime" and want to replace the government with an unelected "peoples council".

Demonstrators announced Friday they would march to the headquarters of Yingluck’s Puea Thai party, a day after cutting off the electricity to the national police headquarters in Bangkok, in their latest act of provocation against a key symbol of authority.The move came just hours after Yingluck and her party easily won a parliamentary no confidence vote.

"We are deploying two companies of police (around 300 officers) at Puea Thai party headquarters after they asked for protection," deputy national police chief Worapong Siewpreecha told.

With their spirits buoyed by free food and a party atmosphere, demonstrators have massed at several locations around the capital, including outside many major government buildings.

Their numbers have fallen sharply since an estimated crowd of up to 180,000 people joined an opposition rally on Sunday.

But turnout is expected to spike again over the weekend as organisers seek a final push ahead of celebrations for revered King Bhumibol Adulyadejs birthday on December 5, which are traditionally marked in an atmosphere of calm and respect.

The carnival-like mood at the rallies masks deep divisions in Thai society that have erupted into political bloodshed on several occasions since Thaksins overthrow.

While the latest demos have been largely peaceful, a minor clash broke out Thursday between pro- and anti-government supporters in the province of Pathum Thani on the northern outskirts of Bangkok, police said.