Date – March 10, 2010

The United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD)’s rally is expected to generate about one billion Baht of money circulation in its first three days, says an academic.

Chulalongkorn University economist Narong Petchprasert said if one million people would join the UDD rally, there should be circulation of about 500 million Baht on the first day of the rally and about 200-300 million Baht on each of later days. Such amount of money would be spent on food, stage, and restroom rental.

”The total money amount spent for three days should be about one billion Baht. Such amount does not included daily allowances for participators because it is unknown whether or not such allowance would be offered,” said Mr. Narong.  

A source from Puea Thai Party said Payap Shinawatra, the brother of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, chaired a meeting of Puea Thai’s MPs for the northeastern region yesterday and discussed with them about rally preparation. Most MPs said their people have been prepared but there are problems with the costs. Thus, they asked for 30 million Baht support from Mr. Payap, but the amount was later agreed at 2,000 Baht per each bus that transports the supporters.