BANGKOK — Desperate to defuse Thailand’s deepening political crisis, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolved Parliament’s lower house Monday and called early elections. But protesters seeking to topple her vowed to carry on the fight, saying they cannot win at the polls because of corruption.
A decree from King Bhumibol Adulyadej scheduled the elections Feb. 2 and named Yingluck as interim prime minister until then. The protesters demanded that she resign as caretaker and rejected the election date. Yingluck said Tuesday she would not resign.
The streets of Bangkok were quiet Tuesday, amid weeks of sometimes violent political turmoil as the protesters demand Yingluck give up power to an unelected “people’s council.”
The protesters’ main target is Yingluck’s brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has lived in exile for years but who still wields enormous political power.
