Sunday night’s protest ended on a defiant tone with protest leaders calling for the government to heed their demands or face a ramp-up of protests across the country.
The protesters ended the night marching from the rally-site to a nearby police station, daring authorities to arrest them. Several of the protest leaders had violated conditions of their bail by attending Sunday’s rally.
Anon Nampa, one of the protest-leaders that was earlier arrested by the state for organizing an illegal protest and charged with sedition, told rally-goers that the movement would now wait until September to see how the government responds to their demands.
Sunday’s rally was the largest political protest since the military took power in a 2014 coup. The protesters demanded that the government rewrite the military-drafted constitution, hold fresh elections and demanded the immediate resignation of the military-appointed upper House of Parliament.
Protest leaders, spoken to by Thai Enquirer, said that they were willing to wait and see if the opposition parties could move things along in the parliament and increase pressure on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s administration.
Student-leader Parit “Penguin” Chiwarak, another recently arrested protester, told Thai Enquirer that the protesters will continue to show solidarity with one another and not be intimidated by the state.
Parit and Anon both say that the next large scale rally will happen in September if there is no movement inside parliament.
