Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra survived a no-confidence motion in parliament Thursday as opposition forces in the Asian nation tried to unseat the government amid ongoing street demonstrations.
The vote in parliament was 297 to 134. The opposition’s chances of success appeared slim going into the vote, with Yingluck’s party in the majority.
But after the vote, the real test was whether Yingluck would be able to appease the growing mass of protesters showing up at government buildings.
Even after the vote Thursday, protests were growing at the capital and beyond.
Protesters have been calling for an end to the government of Yingluck, sister of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecommunications tycoon who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Critics of the Thai prime minister accuse her of being a puppet of her older brother Thaksin, a deeply polarizing figure who was removed from power by the military while in New York in 2006. He has since lived in exile, except for a brief return in 2008, and was convicted by Thai courts for corruption and sentenced in absentia to two years in jail later that year.
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