Thai government to revoke emergency tomorrow

Caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government is set to revoke a nearly two-months- old state of emergency tomorrow and replace it with a security law to deal with the political situation in the country.
Surapong Tovichakchaikul, chief advisor to the government's Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO) which has been set up to handle anti-government protests, said the body will ask for the state of emergency to be lifted.
The Internal Security Act (ISA) will replace the emergency decree.
The state of emergency is due to expire on March 22.
After the ISA is implemented, the CMPO will become the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO) but would initially work under the same structure.

Thailand has been in a political crisis since mass rallies began in November. The protesters are demanding an unelected People's Council to replace the Yingluck regime.

On January 22, the Yingluck Shinawatra-led caretaker government put Bangkok under a state of emergency for 60 days to quell protests.
Violence had erupted in Bangkok and other parts of the country ahead and during the February 2 snap polls, boycotted by main opposition Democrat Party demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Yingluck.
Opposition-backed protesters had blocked polling in several opposition stronghold provinces and in some parts of Bangkok on February 2 and during advance polling on January 26.

The protesters accuse Yingluck of acting as a proxy for her fugitive brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. He lives in self-exile in Dubai to escape a jail term on a corruption conviction.
Since November 2013, seventy attacks against protesters have resulted in over 20 deaths and 720 injuries. In recent days, five persons have died in blasts at protest sites.