Thai polling stations might close if violence mars election

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By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Orathai Sriring BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai authorities might close polling booths if violence erupts during Sunday's disputed election, which would further undermine the credibility of a vote that is deemed incapable of restoring stability in the polarized country. The government has vowed to push ahead with the general election despite threats by anti-government protesters, camped out at major intersections in Bangkok, that they will disrupt the polls in an attempt to stop Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's Puea Thai Party from returning to power. The anti-government protesters took to the streets in November in the latest round of an eight-year conflict that pits Bangkok's middle class, southern Thais and the royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006. The main opposition Democrat party, which backs the anti-government protests, is boycotting the election, which Yingluck's party is bound to win but without enough members to achieve a quorum in parliament.

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