By Wirat Buranakanokthanasarn
BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 30,000 protesters converged on Bangkok's main shopping area on Saturday and threatened to stay until Thailand's prime minister calls elections, forcing big department stores to close and paralysing traffic.
The red-shirted protesters swarmed an intersection whose upmarket stores are a symbol of wealth in the Thai capital, accusing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's government of neglecting the poor on the 21st day of their mass street rally.
Central World, the second-largest shopping complex in Southeast Asia, and other big malls shut their doors in response to the protests and threats by the "red shirts" to stay in the area popular with tourists and home to luxury hotels.
"We cannot let Mr. Abhisit rule the country any longer," Jatuporn Prompan, a "red shirt" leader, said from a makeshift stage. "It is time for the under-privileged to liberate themselves from oppression made by the elite-backed government."
Another protest leader, Veera Musikapong, told Reuters the protesters would remain until at least Monday but they would talk with authorities on Sunday to allow some traffic through.
"We have no choice but to step up civil disobedience until the government listens," he said. "We are here because this area is a symbol of Bangkok elite. We want to show them they cannot rule without consensus of the people."
Abhisit, a British-born, Oxford-educated economist, said the government would not use force to disperse the protesters and urged Bangkok's 15 million people to show restraint.
While the rally was mostly peaceful, tempers flared when a Porsche ploughed into a row of parked motorbikes. Protesters smashed its windscreen and scuffled with the 18-year-old driver, a member of a prominent family who was rescued by police.
Backed by Thailand's powerful military and royalist establishment, Abhisit has said a peaceful poll now would be difficult given the tensions and has offered to dissolve parliament in December, a year early.
The mostly rural and urban poor protesters began rallying on March 14 when up to 150,000 converged on Bangkok's old quarter.
Analysts say Abhisit would likely lose an election if it were held now, raising investment risks in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy following a $1.6 billion (1.05 billion pound) surge of foreign investment in Thai stocks over the past five weeks on expectations Abhisit will survive the showdown.
'SEA CHANGE IN THAI POLITICS'
The "red shirts," supporters of twice-elected and now fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, say Abhisit has no popular mandate and came to power illegitimately, heading a coalition the military cobbled together after courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party that led the previous government.
Abhisit says he was voted into office by the same parliament that picked his Thaksin-allied predecessors.
Laying siege to an area to dislodge governments has become a way of life in Thai politics. In 2008, yellow-shirted protesters who opposed Thaksin's allies in the previous government occupied the prime minister's office for three months and then blockaded Bangkok's main airport until a court expelled the government.
At the heart of the impasse is Thaksin, seen as authoritarian and corrupt before he was ousted in a 2006 coup but a rallying symbol for the poor as the first Thai civilian leader to reach out to rural voters in his 2001 campaign.
The 60-year-old former telecommunications tycoon is believed to be a big source of funds for the protests and has harnessed new technology -- from social networking site Twitter to webcams -- to rally supporters from self-imposed exile, mostly in Dubai.
Analysts say regardless of the outcome, the mass rallies mark a turning point in a country where the richest 20 percent of the population earn about 55 percent of the income while the poorest fifth get 4 percent, according to the World Bank.
"The fact that this many people were mobilised for so long shows the sea change in Thai politics," said Chris Baker, a political analyst who has written books on Thai politics.
The "red shirts" have tapped an under-current of frustration, added Thai political historian Charnvit Kasertsiri.
"What the leaders say strikes a chord, whether it be double-standard of treatment, problems with the justice system, or lack of access and opportunities for a better life," he said.
Analysts say both sides want to be in power in October for an annual military reshuffle and the passing of the national budget.
The budget gives the government room to roll out welfare policies to court rural voters and the military reshuffle allows the government to promote allies in an institution with big influence in a country that has seen 18 coups since 1932.
(Additional reporting by Vithoon Amorn and Ambika Ahuja. Writing by Jason Szep; editing by Myra MacDonald)
