Thai PM rules out deferring Feb 2 polls

Embattled Thai Premier Yingluck Shinawatra today ruled out deferring snap polls due next month despite the opposition's demand even as the massive anti-government protests across Bangkok entered the third day with no solution in sight to end the raging political crisis.
Early today, two people were wounded in a shooting incident, a bus was burnt and the house of the opposition leader damaged in a bomb explosion, the latest in a cycle of violence that has rocked the city in recent weeks.
Yingluck, now caretaker prime minister, held a meeting with about 37 parties to discuss the Election Commission (EC)'s suggestion to postpone the February 2 polls and later said the majority of participants insisted that the elections had to go ahead.

Yingluck, who yesterday refused to quit as demanded by the protesters, said the government and EC had no authority to postpone the polls.
Police said a garbage collector and a woman who were at an anti-government protester rally last night were slightly wounded in a shooting incident by an unidentified gunman.
The demonstrators want Yingluck to resign and for an unelected "people's council" to be set up to oversee reforms to stamp out corruption and also to end the political clout of Yingluck's exiled billionaire brother Thaksin, a former premier, who was overthrown in a coup in 2006.

Late last night an explosive device was also hurled at a house belonging to the family of opposition leader and former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, causing some damage but no one was injured.

Abhisit's Democrat Party has said it will boycott the February polls.
Meanwhile, firebrand protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister, led a march through several upscale Bangkok neighbourhoods to garner support for his movement to oust Yingluck.
Suthep said yesterday that Yingluck and some cabinet ministers could be taken into custody if she did not quit.
His protest movement however said the air traffic control and stock exchange would not be seized as threatened by a hardline anti-government student group.
Protesters have blocked key intersections in the capital for a third straight day in their attempt to shutdown Bangkok.