Thai "red shirt" protesters have threatened to march on an army barracks where Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has been based after the Election Commission unexpectedly recommended his party be dissolved.
Mr Abhisit, who came to power in 2008 when the army brokered a deal in parliament, would have to step down if the Constitutional Court, following the Election Commission's findings, found his Democrat Party guilty of funding irregularities.
The "red shirt" protesters - who want Mr Abhisit to step down immediately - said they would step up their protest, after their month-long rally turned violent on Saturday. They plan to send out hundreds of motorcyclists handing out leaflets and pictures from the clashes.
"We are also contemplating a march to the 11th Battalion to ask Abhisit and the army he is hiding behind for an answer," red shirt leader Nattawut Saikua told reporters.
Mr Abhisit has mostly operated from the base since the protests began.
The red shirts say troops shot the protesters, but the government says shadowy "terrorists" were responsible.
About 300 "yellow shirts" gathered at the Victory Monument war memorial, calling on the red shirts to go home.
The yellow shirts are made up of academics, businessmen, royalists and urban middle-class activists opposed to ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the political parties he has backed from exile.
Thai foreign minister Kasin Piromya urged the international community to crack down on what he described as illicit money transfers made by Mr Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon beloved by the rural poor for populist policies.
The Minister said Mr Thaksin – who was ousted in a 2006 coup - was illicitly providing the red shirts with $3 million a day, describing him as a "bloody terrorist". "It would be nice to have a look at where the money is going," he told reporters in Washington.
Mr Thaksin has denied the charge.
Further isolating the embattled Mr Abhisit, army chief Anupong Paochinda said yesterday early elections could end the impasse.
It was General Anupong's first public comment since his forces failed on Saturday to eject protesters from their base in central Bangkok in clashes that killed 21 and wounded hundreds in Thailand's worst political violence in two decades.
The electoral fraud case could take months as prosecutors and the Constitutional Court act on the commission's recommendation. A guilty verdict could lead to the dissolution of Mr Abhisit's Democrats, the country's oldest party, and Mr Abhisit and party executives would be banned from politics for five years.
The court found two Thaksin-allied parties guilty of fraud in 2007 and 2008.
Some analysts view the Election Commission's surprise decision as a gesture to the red shirts, who have complained of double standards in law enforcement. It also puts additional pressure on Mr Abhisit to decide whether to call fresh polls.
Yesterday, coalition partners proposed that Mr Abhisit dissolve parliament in six months. He had already offered nine months.
Reuters