BANGKOK, June 7 – Red shirts from the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) began gathering Thursday morning at Parliament seeking the impeachment of Constitution Court judges who issued an injunction for Parliament’s lower to suspend the vote on the third reading of the charter amendment bill.
The red shirt move came the day before Friday’s joint House-Senate meeting amid a public dispute over the court’s authority after it accepted consideration of the legality of the draft constitutional amendment and issued an injunction to suspend the parliamentary process until a court ruling.
As of today neither a vote nor consideration of the amendment for its third reading has been put on tomorrow’s agenda.
Security has been tightened around Parliament to avoid possible confrontations as a rival movement, the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which oppose any move to amend the charter and any deliberation of national reconciliation bills, are gathering at the Royal Plaza, not far from Parliament.
The authorities have set up two-tiers of concrete barricades and 400 police officers have been deployed to maintain law and order.
The UDD claims nearly 10,000 names have been collected for the petition to impeach the court judges, while an additional 12,000 names will be sent from upcountry by noon today.
The Secretariat of Senate reported that Pheu Thai party-list MP Weng Tojirakarn, also a key Red shirt leader, will hand in the impeachment petition against the Constitution Court judges to Senate Speaker Theeradej Meepian at 2pm, giving it to his deputy Pornthip Lohveera Chanrattanapreeda.
