DHAKA: In a breezy Bangkok park rimmed by high-end hotels and shopping malls, immaculately-dressed women cradle lit candles and sing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.

‘Respect my vote,’ they declare on the home-made placards they hold high, reports The Straits Times.

Just 400m down the road, grim private guards keep close watch from behind sandbags, rubber tires and metal barricades, directing unsuspecting motorists away from a blockade of one of the capital’s busiest junctions.

Protesters and their powerful backers are trying to dislodge a caretaker government that is just two weeks away from getting a fresh mandate.

They have, in fact, been trying for almost three months, certain that the dominant Puea Thai party will be re-elected in the February 2 snap polls.

And they are bent on preventing the election from taking place without political reforms under a council of ‘good people’.

BDST: 1920 HRS, JAN 18, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor