The head of Thailand's armed forces has dealt a blow to the ebbing right-wing protest movement in Bangkok’s streets, and refused to meet with protest leaders who had asked police and military chiefs to choose sides in the crisis.

Deputy army spokesman Werachon Sukondhapatipak said, “The chief of the armed services will not meet Mr. Suthep today,” referring to Suthep Thaugsuban, the former government official who is leading the protests.  Suthep and his followers actually want the democratically elected government to step aside for an unelected panel of “good people”.

Thailand’s armed forces have staged or attempted 18 coups in the last 80 years, and overthrew the current Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s brother Thaksin in 2006.  But there is apparently no desire to get involved this time.

The size of the demonstrations is slowly shrinking, and the the protesters hopes may rest only in the democratic system they believe betrayed them.  But Bangkok’s conservative royalists and upper-class elites simply do not have the votes to overcome the Shinawatra’s poorer electoral powerbase in the country’s north.