The two colors, yellow and red dominate Thailand's political arena. The country has been in a state of constant political turmoil since early 2006, and all of this was caused by one person: Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Thai politics is becoming a grudge match.

One side is led by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup, and his red-shirted supporters.

On the other side are many of Thaksin's vehement enemies among the middle and upper classes, the yellow shirts.

The Red Shirts, formally known as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, want current prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to call a new election.

They believe Abhisit came to power illegitimately with the connivance of the military and those who were jealous and fearful of Thaksin's popularity while in office in 2001-2006.

In 2008, when Thaksin's political allies returned to power for a year, his opponents occupied the prime minister's office compound for three months and seized Bangkok's two airports for a week.

Last April, the Red Shirts forced the Prime Minister to cancel a scheduled ASEAN summit, and the situation deteriorated into rioting that left two people dead.

Analysts say Thaksin's absence has not ended the political impasse between Bangkok's royalists and business elite, who accused Thaksin and his allies of corruption and abuse of power, and the rural and urban poor who loved his policies.