Thousands gather in Bangkok to protest against govt

Bangkok [Thailand], August 17 : Thousands of people hit the streets on Sunday in Bangkok to demand the resignation of the government, changes to the constitution and an end to the harassment of opposition activists.
The demonstrators have demanded the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former military government leader who won disputed elections last year, Sputnik reported.
"We estimate that more than 20,000 people attended today," a member of the Free Youth movement, a student-led organization behind the protest, told Sputnik.
The organisers gathered over 19,000 signatures under a petition calling to rewrite the constitution, which was created while the military was in power from 2014-2019.
The police said that some 12,000 people had turned up, but the counting was made within a confined perimeter of the square where the main rally was held and did not include thousands thronging nearby streets.
"We, the youth, should rethink the ways our forefathers lived by. We realise we can no longer live under a dictatorship whose powers are enshrined in the existing constitution," a speaker said from the tribune.