A few days ago, Thailand’s main opposition party said it would collectively resign from parliament to further delegitimize prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her administration. (And we thought Republicans were difficult to deal with.) Yingluck—whose exiled, tycoon brother Thaksin is at the heart of the current unrest—countered by dissolving the parliament and calling for new elections.

“Now that the government has dissolved parliament, I ask that you stop protesting and that all sides work towards elections,” she told reporters today. “I have backed down to the point where I don’t know how to back down any further.”

But protest marches, which had been planned and mapped on Google days in advance, have continued anyway.

From the Guardian:

Thailand’s prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, dissolved parliament on Monday and called a snap election, but anti-government protest leaders pressed ahead with mass demonstrations in Bangkok in an attempt to install an unelected body to run the country.

Police estimated that about 160,000 protesters converged on Yingluck’s office at Government House, but there was none of the violence and bloodshed seen before the demonstrations paused last Thursday out of respect for the king’s birthday.

The protesters want to oust Yingluck and eradicate the influence of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the former premier who was toppled by the military in 2006 and has chosen to live in exile rather than serve a jail term for corruption.

There was a carnival atmosphere as protesters gathered at Government House, with unarmed police and troops inside. In a speech to supporters after nightfall, protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban said: “From this minute onwards, all Thais have taken power back for the people.”

He gave no clues about his next move or how exactly he planned to take over the levers of government. Aware that allies of Yingluck and Thaksin would almost certainly win any election, Suthep has called for a “people’s council” of appointed “good people” to replace the government. As such, he dismissed the early election. “The dissolving of parliament is not our aim,” he said.

Sounds like everybody’s stuck—the king has decreed that the new elections will happen on Feb 2 (two years ahead of schedule), and there’s not much for anyone to do until then, unless Suthep is serious about trying to chase Yingluck out of the country with a mob.

According to our man in SE Asia:

The opposition resigned (they are the protesters) in part to force the government’s hand, but also to avoid dissolution as a political party for engaging in anti-government activities—but now the legislators are no longer immune from prosecution.

This is really big, so it might be a last-gasp measure. Then again, last week when the protesters beat the police back, they hugged the cops and the cops gave them flowers in return—so who knows what will happen?

The protestors’ demands that democracy be disbanded and that a non-elected council be allowed to rule the country (and then restore democracy) seems a bit far-fetched.

Yingluck’s move to dissolve the government, thus calling for new elections, is a smart move. The opposition has not won an election since 1992. A friend of mine said that there are too many “watermelon” troops for a coup to happen—that is, green on the outside (the fatigues) and but with red-shirt sympathies on the inside.

And then there is this, the world’s worst travel promotion—free riot insurance for tourists.

Reporter Richard Barrow Tweeted just a few minutes ago that things might heat up again soon:

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....