PAD campaigners say the government is too closely tied to former PM Thaksin [AFP]
Anti-government protesters in Thailand have switched the focus of their demonstrations to the government's temporary offices as they continue efforts to topple the elected administration.
On Tuesday thousands of protesters surrounded Bangkok's old Don Muang airport, from where Somchai Wongsawat, the prime minister, and his cabinet have run the country since protesters occupied Government House in August.
Protest leaders said their aim was to block the government from meeting.
"We'll protest until there is no cabinet meeting," said a protest leader, Somsak Kosaisuk. "We'll interrupt their every attempt to ruin the country further."
But a government spokesman told the AFP news agency said the weekly cabinet meeting normally scheduled for Tuesday was not taking place as the prime minister had not yet returned from the Apec summit in Peru.
"The cabinet meeting was rescheduled on Wednesday afternoon after prime minister Somchai arrives from Lima. The government has not cancelled or postponed its meeting," Nattawut Saikuar said.
Six-month campaign
The protest came a day after supporters of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) surrounded the Thai parliament building, forcing MPs to postpone a joint session.
Tensions soared last week after a demonstrator was killed and several others injured in a grenade attack on a PAD protest camp in the ground of Government House.
The PAD – a loose alliance of royalists, academics and businessmen - accuses the government elected in December last year of being tainted by corruption and of being a puppet of Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
PAD leaders have called the latest protests the "final battle" in their six-month campaign to unseat the People Power Party, which has close ties to Thaksin.
Unions had said they would call a nationwide strike on Tuesday if the government did not quit, but the threatened walkout did not materialise.
The ongoing political crisis has stymied government decision-making and undermined confidence in Thailand's export-driven economy, which has also been hit by the global financial crisis.
According to the latest government data, the Thai economy will grow at 4.5 per cent this year, its slowest rate in seven years – due both to slumping investment and a slide in exports.
