The week ahead for January 27: No Thai election, but maybe a Morsi hearing
A look at what’s coming up on the East Coast and around the world.
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- Thai election: Workers of the Cooperative Auditing Department leave after anti-government protesters locked it and forced their evacuation in central Bangkok January 24, 2014. Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday opened the way to put off a general election the government has set for February 2, piling pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who looks increasingly cornered by legal challenges to her grip on power. || REUTERS/ Athit Perawongmetha
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- State of the Union: U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to speak about college education at the White House in Washington January 16, 2014. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama met with representatives of colleges, universities and philanthropic groups at the White House on Thursday to talk about steps to get more low-income students to attend college. The event is part of Obama’s pledge to try to narrow the gap between rich and poor, a politically popular theme that is expected to dominate his State of the Union address on January 28. || REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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- Super Bowl XLVIII: Super Bowl XLVIII proposition bets are posted on an electronic board at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino Superbook in Las Vegas, Nevada January 23, 2014. The Seattle Seahawks will go to the gridiron for their Super Bowl showdown against the Denver Broncos on February 2. || REUTERS/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus
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- Republic Day: India’s Border Security Force (BSF) soldiers ride their camels during a rehearsal for the “Beating the Retreat” ceremony in New Delhi January 24, 2014. The ceremony symbolises retreat after a day on the battlefield, and marks the official end of the Indian Republic Day celebrations. It is held every year on January 29. || REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
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- Lunar New Year: Children play with bubble toy guns under Chinese lunar New Year decorations at a park in Beijing, January 24, 2014. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the Chinese New Year, which welcomes the year of the horse, falls on January 31. || REUTERS/China Daily
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- St. Petersburg remembers: A man walks past antitank guns during the rehearsal of a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the final raise of the Nazi blockade of the city Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, on January 24, 2014. The German and Finnish siege and blockade of Leningrad was broken on January 18, 1943 but finally lifted a year after, on January 27, 1944. The city’s name was changed back from Leningrad to St. Petersburg after the 1991 Soviet collapse. || OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/Getty Images
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- A verdict for Chile, Peru: Chile’s Interior Minister Andres Chadwick answers a question during a news conference at the Presidential Palace after a meeting with the National Security Council in Santiago, January 20, 2014. The meeting was held to talk about Peru’s maritime dispute with Chile and the upcoming verdict of the International Court of Justice on January 27, according to local media. || REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado
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- Possible mine strike resolution: A striking miner shaves outside shacks near Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana on January 24, 2014. The South African government brokered negotiations to end a pay dispute between tens of thousands of striking platinum mineworkers and mining firms, amid reports of clashes on the picket lines. After two hours of preliminary closed-door talks, the negotiations were postponed until January 27 but the strike will in the meantime continue. || ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images
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- Diplomatic summit: Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez gives a press conference on January 24, 2013, in Havana, at the CELAC Summit Press Room. Havana will hold the II Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on January 28-29. || ALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images
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- Frankfurt festivities wrap up: Christmas tree balls shaped like a Santa Claus and an Easter bunny are on display at the stand at the Neustadt Glas- und Design GmbH glass and design company of the “Christmasworld” fair on January 24, 2014 in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. The trade fair for festive decorations is running until January 28, 2014, with more than 900 exhibitors from 39 countries presenting their latest products. || FRANK RUMPENHORST/AFP/Getty Images
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- Film in Mexico: Mexican actor Gael Garcia arrives for a press conference to announce the 9th edition of ”Ambulante 2014, Documentary Tour” in Mexico City on January 22, 2014. One hundred six documentaries from 34 countries will be screened in 30 Mexican cities between January 30 and May 4. || YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images
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- ‘Brokeback’ premiere: American composer of contemporary classical music Charles Wuorinen sits during an AFP interview in Madrid on January 16, 2014. Wuorinen was commissioned to turn Annie Proulx’s 1997 short story ‘Brokeback Mountain’ into an opera under the direction of Gerard Mortier director of the Teatro Real in Madrid with the world premier set for January 28, 2014. || PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images
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- Cheap eats debut: Netherlands’ Ad Sedubun, poses with a plate in the kitchen of the restaurant Dill in The Hague on January 17, 2014. The restaurant exclusively uses products from discounter Lidl and will serve a complete meal for five euros including a drink. The first ‘Lidl restaurant’ in The Netherlands will open it’s doors on February 1. || LEX VAN LIESHOUT/AFP/Getty Images
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- Yellen takes over: This November 14, 2013 file photo shows Dr. Janet Yellen speaking during her confirmation hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee as US President Barack Obama’s choice to head the Federal Reserve on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Incoming US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen said in an interview published January 9, 2014 that she sees the US economy picking up in 2014. “I think we’ll see stronger growth this year. Most of my colleagues on the Fed’s policymaking committee and I are hopeful that the first digit (of GDP growth) could be 3 rather than 2,” she told Time magazine. Yellen, who will become the first woman to chair the Fed when she takes over from Ben Bernanke on February 1, told Time that the recovery of the economy from the 2008-2009 recession has been “frustratingly slow”. || BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
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- Diplomatic anniversary: Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) makes his opening remarks during a meeting with Claude Bartolone, President of the French National Assembly, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 23, 2014. Bartolone is in China as part of the celebrations marking the 50-year anniversary of France establishing full diplomatic ties with Communist China on January 27, when in 1964, France broke ranks with the US to open ties with the then-government of Mao Zedong — a decision that paved the way for China to gain global recognition. || GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty Images
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- Morsi hearing, police thuggery: Egyptian policemen arrest a supporter of ousted president Mohamed Morsi outside the police academy where was supposed to take place the second hearing in his murder trial on January 8, 2014 in Cairo. An Egyptian court adjourned the hearing to February 1, citing “weather conditions” that prevented Morsi’s transport to court from prison. || KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images
Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat
Reuters
7:27 a.m. EST, January 24, 2014
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The Constitutional Court of Thailand on Friday opened the way to put off a general election the government had set for February 2, putting pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who looks increasingly cornered by legal challenges to her hold on power.
The election would have joined a State of the Union, a delayed hearing for Mohamed Morsi and two large South American diplomatic events in a week of expected news.
Related links:
State of the Union: Obama aiming his message beyond Congress
Thai court ruling adds to mounting pressure on PM Yingluck
Chile and Peru see end to old differences as Hague verdict nears
Supporters of ousted president clash with security forces in Cairo
The Election Commission in Thailand sought court approval to postpone the Feb 2. vote, arguing that the country was too unsettled by mass anti-government protests in the capital, now in their third month, to hold a successful vote.
Yingluck called the election in the hope of confirming her hold on power in the face of protests trying to force her from office.
“(The ruling) is likely to be seen as part of the build-up to dislodge Yingluck from office, similar to what happened in 2008 but with higher stakes and higher potential for violence and unpredictability,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political analyst at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said.
In 2008, courts brought down two governments allied to Yingluck’s brother and ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra who now lives in self-imposed exile.
The ruling appears to fudge a decision. It gave the Election Commission the right to postpone the election, but also ruled that the commission would have to agree on a new date with the government.
The government has refused to accept a delay in the vote which it would almost certainly win and which the opposition says it will boycott.
Varathep Rattankorn, a minister at the prime minister’s office, said it would study the ruling before deciding its next move.
One election commissioner, speaking to Reuters, said the vote could still go ahead on February 2 if Yingluck’s government dug in its heels.
“We will ask to meet with the prime minister and her government on Monday to discuss a new election date,” Election Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn said. “If the government doesn’t agree to postpone the election, then the election will go ahead.”
STATE OF EMERGENCY
The government declared a 60-day state of emergency from Wednesday hoping to prevent an escalation in protests.
A leading pro-government activist was shot and wounded the same day in northeast Thailand, a Yingluck stronghold, in what police said was a political attack, adding to fears the violence could spread.
Nine people have died and dozens been wounded in violence, including two grenade attacks in the capital last weekend.
Anti-government firebrand and protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, accusing the government of mass corruption, wants it to step down and a “people’s council” appointed to push through electoral and political changes.
He has yet to comment publicly on the court ruling.
The protests are the latest eruption in a political conflict that has gripped the country for eight years.
Broadly, it pits the Bangkok middle class and royalist establishment against the mainly poorer supporters of Yingluck and her brother, who was toppled by the military in 2006.
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Additional editing by Baltimore Sun staff
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