THAITENSIONSTO RISE AS POWER STRUGGLE INTENSIFIES
BANGKOK January 6, 2014 (Reuters) - Thailand is heading for a political showdown as protesters plan to shut down Bangkok next week to sabotage an election while the government's supporters have vowed to stage massive counterrallies in the country's provinces.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is facing swelling opposition in Bangkok ahead of the February 2 election in which her supporters in the rural north and northeast are expected to return her to power - if the vote goes ahead.
Thousands of demon- strators marched through Bangkok on Sunday as a prelude to rallies starting on January 13, when they plan to block government offices and occupy key in- tersections for days in a bid to force Yingluck out and scuttle the poll.
The protesters accuse Yingluck of being a puppet of her self-exiled brother and former premier, Thaksin Shinawatra.
They want an appointed "people's council" to oversee a vague reform platform, which includes electoral changes and decentralizing power over a 12-month period before any election.
Thai markets are expected to face pressure this week over the growing uncertainty. The baht slid on Friday to its lowest against the dollar since February 2010 and the benchmark stock index has lost 15 percent since early November, when the latest crisis began.