It's not a CIA-sponsored effort so the pre$$ coverage of protests is sporadic if it exists at all:
"Thailand court nullifies protest-marred election" by Thanyarat Doksone | Associated Press March 22, 2014
BANGKOK — Thailand’s Constitutional Court nullified last month’s general election on Friday, forcing new polls and aggravating a political crisis in which protesters have occupied parts of the capital for four months to demand the government yield power to an interim appointed council.
The judges voted, 6 to 3, to declare the Feb. 2 election unconstitutional because voting was not held on the same day in 28 constituencies where protesters prevented candidates from registering. The constitution says the election should be held on the same day nationwide, although it also allows for advance voting.
‘‘The process is to have a new general election,’’ Pimol Thampitakpong, the court’s secretary general, said in announcing the decision.
Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has refused the protesters’ demands that she resign, and called early elections to receive a fresh mandate. The protesters attempted to prevent the election from taking place, physically blocking and intimidating candidates and voters.
Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party and its predecessors have won every national election since 2001. It was expected to win again in February, especially because the opposition Democrat Party boycotted the election.
Yingluck’s standing as caretaker prime minister was unaffected by Friday’s ruling.
Election Commission president Supachai Somcharoen said it would take at least three months for a new election to be held. In 2006, there was an eight-month gap before rescheduled polls were to be held after an election was nullified, but the army carried out a coup before they could take place.
Thailand has suffered from political conflict since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck’s brother, was ousted in the 2006 coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin’s supporters and opponents have since taken to the streets for extended periods in a power struggle.
The latest protests have kept the government, already limited by its caretaker status, from carrying out any major policy initiatives. The protesters have blockaded and sometime occupied government offices in the capital.
Supachai, the election commissioner, said he was not worried that the protesters would block a new election.
‘‘Times have changed and so has the situation,’’ he said, without further explanation. He urged people to love their country and work to help it.
‘‘If there’s a new election, the country can then move forward,’’ he said. But he added that ‘‘if the situation is still intense, then we should not hold the election because it will be a waste of people’s tax money.’’
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Starting to become a pattern with them.
"Thai rail plan ruled unconstitutional | Associated Press March 13, 2014
BANGKOK — A Thai court ruled Wednesday that the government’s ambitious $62 billion plan to build high-speed rail and other transport infrastructure was unconstitutional and must be ended.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling was the latest blow to the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, which has been the target of four months of antigovernment protests. The seven-year transport plan was a centerpiece policy of the ruling party, which won a landslide victory in 2011 elections. Yingluck’s government is now a caretaker administration after early elections in February were disrupted by protests in Bangkok.
The court sided with the opposition Democrat Party, which had launched the legal challenge saying that a law authorizing the $62 billion of borrowing would raise public debt to unacceptably high levels and reduce transparency by bypassing the annual budget process.
The party’s move came after the Senate last year voted in favor of the bill which would have allowed the Finance Ministry to borrow the money in Thailand and overseas without recourse to the government budget.
Wednesday’s decision included a unanimous ruling that the bill was unconstitutional and a 6-to-2 ruling that the process of drafting it was unconstitutional.
It was expected to stir criticism among Yingluck’s supporters who see the courts in Thailand as sympathetic to the antigovernment movement.
Protesters accuse Yingluck of being a proxy for her brother, the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The country has been wracked by political unrest since 2006, when Thaksin was ousted by a military coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power.
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Reminds me of the rice bribe.
Also see: Lynching Yingluck
