A few thousand hardcore protesters remain defiant, but the widespread demonstrations that threatened to plunge Thailand into chaos have largely disappeared as people went back to their lives and jobs.  They failed to stop the elections and they failed to completely shut down the capital Bangkok.

Police cleared barriers that have blocked access to ministries and stopped the government from fully functioning and began reclaiming intersections in Bangkok.  Security minister Chalerm Ubumrung said that the leader of the protests, Suthep Thaugsuban was “almost finished” and “nearly destroyed.”  Suthep’s supporters wanted the elected government to step down and be replaced with an unelected ruling committee of “good people”.

The protests have left Thailand, the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, with an enfeebled government and the prospect of months of deadlock.  Courts, allied with the conservative opposition party, were emboldened by the protests and issued a number of rulings against President Yingluck Shinawatra’s ruling party.  Most controversial was the judgment that the protest movement, which has shut down a number of government buildings, was not an effort to “overthrow” the country’s democratic system.

However, the courts rejected a petition by the opposition to nullify the election.  The opposition party boycotted the elections, and now appear to be on the verge of being shut out.