Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana says the 2 February snap elections will go on as scheduled, rejecting a request from the country’s election commission to postpone it, because of the precarious and volatile situation in the capital.

“The Election Commission said holding elections will bring violence but the government believes delaying an election will cause more violence,” The Deputy Prime Minister said in a televised address.

Bangkok police used tear gas and rubber bullets as clashes break out with protesters trying to prevent political parties registering for elections.  The protesters claim the government is corrupt, and are demanding the democratically elected Prime Minister and her cabinet step down and be replaced with an appointed committee of “good people”.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had called for the early vote to end the political crisis, but the opposition then decided it would boycott the elections that the government was heavily favored to win, anyway.  Yingluck and her Pheu Thai party enjoy vast support in the poor but populous north of the country.  The protesters are largely better-off, urban, and educated Thais who have seen their traditional status threatened by the political power of the north.