Authorities were confident they could easily handle the group of anti-government demonstrators still camping at Lumpini Park on Friday following the lifting of the Internal Security Act (ISA), saying they present no threat.
Traffic returns to normal on Friday outside Government House after the Internal Security Act was lifted on Thursday night. (Post Today photo)
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra signed her approval for the revoking of the ISA on Thursday night, only hours after the amnesty bill tabled by Pheu Thai MP Worachai Hema cruised through the first reading in parliament as the government used its clear majority to get its own way, brushing off a desperate stand against it by the opposition.
The prime minister said there was no security threat and the ISA was no longer needed, clearing the way for all road blocks around Government House, parliament and key government agencies to be cleared away in Dusit, Phra Nakhon and Pomprap Sattruphai districts. The ISA was to have been in force until Saturday.
The prime minister's order also meant the closure of the Centre for Administration of Peace and Order formed to oversee the imposition of special security law and chaired by national police chief Adul Saengsingkaew.
The strict security law was lifted despite the presence of a small group of protesters under the banner of the People's Democratic Force to Overthrow Thaksinism (Pefot) still gathered in Lumpini Park.
Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok showed no sign of concern about the Pefot rally, saying the situation had returned to normal. Pefot had the right to demonstrate under the constitution, but they were being watched by the Metropolitian Police Bureau under Pol Lt Gen Khamronwit Thoopkrachang.
The Pefot demonstration was not a security threat, he added.
The Lumpini protesters had planned to rally on the streets and march from the park to parliament on Wednesday, but the plan was cancelled because of low turnout.
Some 38,000 police were deployed during the ISA, especially in the days before the parliament debated the highly controversial amnesty bill, and during the Democrat Party-led protest walk from Urupong intersection to the area near parliament before the House meeting began on Wednesday.
Pol Gen Adul on Friday presided over a ceremony at the Police Club on Vibhavadi Rangsit road to send police and border patrol police back to their barracks after they withdrew from the restricted areas and roads following the end of the ISA.
However, observers say the political situation could heat up again when the bill returns to the floor of parliament for the second and third readings after being vetted by a special House scrutiny committee.
Pol Gen Pracha said the Internal Security Operations Command will watch and assess any future developments and decide whether the ISA should be again invoked.