The Student Federation of Thailand is caught in a debate over whether to throw its full support behind the red-shirt protest.
"If the government has the hearts of the majority of the people with them, then they should not fear [a new] election," Anuthee was quoted as saying on the online prachatai.com newspaper. Somluck Lam-ubol, a caretaker member of the executive committee of the SFT, however told The Nation that the remark was Anuthee's personal view and the executive committee had yet to reach a decision on the matter.
Somluck, a senior Chulalongkorn University student, questioned the merit of the federation publicly throwing its support behind the red-shirt movement.
She said there was no telling what could happen today and tomorrow and the SFT may better playing a more impartial role in the event of a crisis developing.
Moreover, said Somluck, it was uncertain how many students the federation could mobilise even if it wanted to join the protest.
"It would be useless if we were unable to mobilise many people," she said.
"If we don't join [the protest], there are things that we can still do."
The committee will meet as soon as possible to discuss the matter, she added.
Last April, the SFT held a press conference after the Songkran mayhem calling for an investigation into whether red-shirt protesters had been killed by troops.
However, it failed to come up with any conclusive evidence to this effect.
