Anti-government protesters in Thailand held their ground on the streets of Bangkok today and said they would stay there until Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva sets a date for dissolving parliament.
Protest leaders, who had demanded an immediate poll, have agreed to enter into a reconciliation process proposed by Mr Abhisit but have taken issue with his offer for a general election on November 14th and said they were not ready to leave their fortified encampment in central Bangkok.
Earlier today, thousands of protesters remained encamped in the city, sleeping under hundreds of tents in a district of high-end department stores and luxury hotels, many of which have been shut for weeks.
Their numbers, however, appear to be steadily dropping.
Their leaders said Mr Abhisit did not have authority to set an election date and urged him instead to propose a timetable for dissolving parliament - a technicality analysts said could give the protesters an opportunity to seek a better offer.
The timing of elections is the most contentious issue in the plan floated by Mr Abhisit on Monday to end a standoff in which 27 people were killed last month and nearly 1,000 wounded.
"We have agreed unanimously to enter the reconciliation process. We don't want any more loss of lives," said Veera Musikapong, chairman of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, known as the "red shirts", said last night.
"We are suspicious about the timeframe, which is within the power of the election commission and not the prime minister," he told thousands of supporters at the barricaded site they have occupied since April 3rd in Bangkok's main commercial district.
"We want Abhisit to come back to us with a clear parliamentary dissolution date instead of an election date and we will meet and consider it again," another protest leader, Jatuporn Prompan said.
The red shirts broadly back former prime .inister Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist multimillionaire who lives in self-imposed exile after his ousting in a 2006 military coup and subsequent conviction for graft.
The protesters say Mr Abhisit, who is backed by the royalist establishment, lacks a popular mandate after coming to power in a parliamentary vote 17 months ago heading a coalition cobbled together with military help.
Reuters