BANGKOK (AP) — Protesters in Thailand’s capital cut off electricity to the prime minister’s office compound on Thursday and demanded that police abandon the premises.
The opposition-backed protesters, seeking to force the replacement of caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government before a Feb. 2 election, have threatened to force their way in if police don’t leave.
The prime minister was not in her offices at the time and shortly afterward gave a televised address from an unidentified location in which she announced a Dec. 15 meeting of all sectors of society to try to find a solution to the crisis.
The protest leadership has demanded a meeting with senior military and police officials, a call which has so far been rebuffed, at least publicly.
In a previous confrontation, police withdrew from the compound to allow the demonstrators in without a fight. That withdrawal came after two days of increasingly violent standoffs.
