BANGKOK - Several thousand people took part in Thailand's biggest protest since a 2014 coup on Saturday after authorities moved to ban a party that has rallied opposition to the government of former military ruler Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The demonstration in Bangkok, called just a day earlier by Future Forward party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 41-year-old billionaire, revived memories of the spasms of street protest that have roiled the Thai capital periodically during the past two decades of political turbulence.
But there was no sign of any attempt to block the biggest demonstration since Prayuth seized power in 2014 on promises to end such unrest.
"This is just the beginning," Thanathorn told the cheering crowd that spilled across walkways and stairways close to the MBK Centre mall, in the heart of Bangkok's shopping and business district.
Thanathorn has emerged as the most outspoken opponent of the government headed by Prayuth, 65, since an election in March that the opposition said was manipulated to favor the army.
Thailand's election panel has asked the Constitutional Court to dissolve the Future Forward party, accusing it of infringing the laws governing political parties by accepting multi-million dollar loans from Thanathorn.
Last month, the Constitutional Court disqualified Thanathorn as member of parliament for holding shares in a media company on the date his election candidacy was registered. Thanathorn disputed the ruling.
Among Saturday's crowd were some veteran "red shirt" protesters, supporters of ousted populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who had once clashed in Bangkok with the "yellow shirt" conservatives - hardline loyalists of the palace and army.
NEW GENERATION
But there were more younger anti-government protesters, many of whom said it was their first protest.
"It's time," said office worker Pantipa Tiakhome, 30. "They have done everything to hinder democracy from flourishing."
Helped by social media, Thanathorn has struck a chord with younger Thais. Meanwhile, the army has made plain its dislike of a movement it accuses of trying to rally the young against the monarchy and the armed forces.
"Today is a show of strength so that in the future others may join us. We're just here today as a test run. Prayuth, don't be afraid yet. The real thing is next month," Thanathorn told the protest.
A party spokeswoman said more than 10,000 people had joined the demonstration. Authorities did not give an estimate.
Many gave the three-finger salute of resistance to the former junta, a symbol drawn from the film The Hunger Games.
Government opponents are also planning a "Run Against Dictatorship" for Jan. 12.
Thanathorn signed an agreement on Saturday with six parties in an opposition alliance to push for changes to the constitution that was drawn up by the junta before the election.
He also won their support for the protest.
Among those parties was Pheu Thai, linked to Thaksin, who lives in self-exile since he was overthrown in 2006. His sister was ousted as prime minister by Prayuth.
Pheu Thai won the most seats in the 500-member lower house but has adopted a quieter approach to challenging the government than Future Forward, which came third in the election.
Palang Pracharat, the pro-military party formed last year by members of the junta's cabinet, came second. Prayuth told reporters on Friday it was inappropriate to organize a demonstration towards the end of the year.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MOSCOW - Thousands of opposition supporters rallied in Moscow on Saturday after mass police detentions at recent protests that have been among the largest since President Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin in 2012.
On a rainy afternoon, protesters huddled under umbrellas on the central Prospekt Andreya Sakharova street, where city authorities had given permission for the rally to take place.
The White Counter, an NGO that tracks participants in rallies, counted 7,200 people, while the massive police presence included officers in riot gear.
In recent weeks, thousands have attended street protests calling for free and fair elections after the exclusion of several opposition figures, including allies of top Putin critic Alexei Navalny, from local Moscow polls next month.
Riot police and the national guard detained more than 2,000 at the previous two rallies, which were not authorized by city officials.
On Saturday, some protesters carried placards with slogans such as "Give us the right to vote!" and "You've lied to us enough" while others held up pictures of activists arrested at earlier demonstrations.
Most opposition candidates who have been banned from participating in the vote have been jailed for violating protest laws.
A dozen protesters including university students face criminal charges of "mass disorder" that risk lengthy prison terms, despite their supporters insisting protests were peaceful.
Saturday's rally was authorized, meaning participants should not face detention. But Navalny, who is currently in jail, urged supporters to walk peacefully through the city afterwards when they will risk detention for illegal protests.
"After the demonstration, we're going for a walk round Moscow," his team wrote on social media on Saturday.
Moscow police and the powerful Investigative Committee issued a warning against participating in unsanctioned protests which it said would be "immediately halted."
"They need blood," pro-Kremlin tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote of the opposition Saturday, quoting several celebrities warning against taking part in unauthorized protests.
Showing the movement's appeal to young Russians, popular electronic and rap musicians were set to play at the rally and mainstream celebrities attended.
One of Russia's most famous rappers, Oxxxymiron, posed at the rally wearing a T-shirt with a photo of one of jailed students, Yegor Zhukov.
'Attempt to gag us'
The latest demonstration came as the authorities this week mounted their harshest attack yet on Navalny's team, focusing on his anti-corruption foundation which publishes investigations of officials close to Putin.
On Thursday investigators raided the foundation's office as part of a probe into alleged acceptance of donations of laundered money and a court froze the foundation's accounts.
"This is the most aggressive attempt yet to gag us," Navalny wrote in a blog entry he issued through lawyers while serving a 30-day sentence.
One of the foundation's lawyers, Lyubov Sobol, has been on hunger strike for weeks after being refused as a candidate in Moscow.
"These are all acts of political intimidation, political repression," she told journalists on Friday, condemning the criminal cases launched against activists as "fabricated and politically motivated".
As he enters his third decade in power, Putin's approval ratings have dropped significantly in recent months and critics say the authorities fear any outlet calling for wider political change.
"The repressive scenario that the authorities are relying on can probably dampen down open discontent but is hardly likely to reach the root of the problem," Vedomosti daily wrote in an editorial.
"A large section of society is not represented in power."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
MOSCOW -- Russian police rounded up more than 1,000 people in Moscow on Saturday in one of the biggest crackdowns of recent years against an increasingly defiant opposition decrying President Vladimir Putin's tight grip on power.
The detentions came around a protest to demand that opposition members be allowed to run in a local election. Authorities had declared it illegal and sought to block participation, but thousands of people turned up anyway in one of the longest and most determined protests of recent times.
Chants of "Russia without Putin" and "Putin resign" echoed through central Moscow as guardsmen clad in riot gear beat back protesters with batons and roughly detained people.
At least one woman and a man appeared to have suffered serious head wounds. Activists said the crackdown was the harshest since a wave of anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-12.
Saturday's events showed how Kremlin critics and especially younger people remain intent on pressing to open Russia's tightly choreographed political system to competition.
Jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny had called the protest to persuade officials to allow opposition-minded candidates to run in a Sept. 8 vote.
Authorities say they were barred because they failed to collect sufficient genuine signatures in their support.
Navalny and his allies have no seats in parliament and are starved of air time on state TV where many Russians still get their news.
Opinion polls in the past have shown support for Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist, only in the single digits. But backers note he won almost a third of the vote in a 2013 Moscow mayoral race and say his movement could build momentum in the Russian capital if allowed to compete fairly.
Though Putin's approval rating is still high at well over 60 percent, it is lower than it used to be due to discontent over years of falling incomes. Last year, the 66-year-old former KGB intelligence officer won a landslide re-election and a new six-year term until 2024.
Burnishing his man of action image, Putin spent Saturday diving to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland in a mini-submarine to honor a Soviet submarine that sunk there in World War II.
ARRESTED 'SITTING ON A BENCH'
OVD-Info, an independent monitoring group, said police detained at least 1,373 people before or at Saturday's protest. As in past sweeps, many were only held for a matter of hours.
Police put participation at more than 3,500 people, of whom it said around 700 people were journalists and bloggers. Activists said the number attending was likely to have been much higher.
Some activists were arrested twice after being released and then returning to protest in a different place. Reuters witnesses said some of those detained appeared to be ordinary passersby in the wrong place at the wrong time.
One of those detained, Alexander Latyshev, 45, said he had come from the nearby Vladimir region to discuss business with an associate and been randomly detained. "I was just sitting on a bench (when they took me)," he told Reuters inside a police bus.
Police also raided an office being used by Navalny's supporters to live-stream the protest.
TV Rain, an independent station covering the protests, said its editor-in-chief had been called in for questioning after police visited its offices.
Under Russian law, the location and timing of such protests need to be agreed with authorities beforehand, something that was not done for Saturday's event.
Kremlin critic Navalny was jailed for 30 days on Wednesday and other members of the opposition have had their homes searched. Ilya Yashin, a Navalny ally, said police had searched his Moscow flat overnight before detaining him and driving him out of the capital. He called for another protest next Saturday.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny's spokeswoman, said on Twitter she had been detained on Saturday morning. Other prominent activists Dmitry Gudkov and Lyubov Sobol were also held.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, a Putin ally, had warned beforehand that authorities would act decisively against the risk of "serious provocations."
The police's investigative arm has already opened a criminal investigation into an opposition rally in June which it said may have obstructed the work of Moscow's electoral commission.
An authorized protest in Moscow last weekend, also calling for the disbarred candidates to be registered, was attended by more than 20,000 people, according to the White Counter monitoring group.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
