as across the country the protests are shown that after the crackdown on friday night there are still prepared to come out with still to come up for votes come out and numbers on the not skirt and now the ball is very much in the government's court. now again i'm fully back to go with the headlines on al-jazeera hundreds of thousands of people have packed into the center of santiago chile counts down to a referendum on its new constitution protests have been mainly peaceful but there's been some violence including a church burning demonstrations began last october over the raising of metro fast but i've grown to include a call for social change a lot america is in seeing him and has more from santiago there are at least 2 churches that are on fire right now we just saw a fire engine go by * ambulances as well running battles between

a very small group of some would call them vandals others would call them extreme protesters or anarchists fighting it out with the police and there were ones who set fire to the churches one of these churches belongs or is used by the police of chile it's a symbol of the chilean police force so they attack that 1st i can smell and see the smoke billowing behind me and so once again what had been a largely peaceful joyous if you like demonstration that lasted all day long with tens of thousands of people has been marred by violence. vote counting is underway in bolivia in a presidential election many hope will restore stability that 18 contenders are a former minister of economy and former president thomas mesereau believe it was plunged into a political crisis when then president evo morales sought a 4th term that led to protests that forced him out of office in guinea the main opposition candidates elude ellen jallow is accusing the president of rigging the

vote so he can stay in power votes in the presidential elections are being counted 82 year old african days vying for a controversial 3rd term in office violence has broken out just 2 weeks ahead of its presidential election at least 2 people were killed in the city of. the stronghold of a leading opposition candidates. house was burnt down while his party's office was attacked in abidjan has called for the fort to be boycotted un secretary general antonio terrorists has r.h. armenia and azerbaijan to respect a new cease fire but both sides accuse each other of violating a 2nd truce hours after it went into effect they've been fighting over the disputed region of nagorno-karabakh coming up next on inside story.

rising anger on thailand's streets at an unprecedented challenge to its monarchy protests against politicians and generals before but with demonstrators now also criticizing the king is this time different this is inside story. welcome to the program. thailand's king is facing his biggest challenge since ascending to the throne 4 years ago pro-democracy protesters are demanding curbs on his powers and they also want the prime minister a fall on the general to resign the demonstrations are largely student led and have

spread across thailand in recent months dozens were arrested or injured in rallies that took place in the last few days. so what are the protesters main concerns about the time on a cape they accuse the king of moving beyond his role of a constitutional monarch which has been the law since 932 they oppose his move to take personal control of tens of billions of dollars in crown assets the protesters also want to change it broadly worded laws that threaten anyone who criticizes the royal family with up to 15 years in jail activists also complain the king spends much of his time in europe mainly in germany we'll bring in our guests in just a moment but 1st tony chang has this update from bangkok. this is the spot on friday where the thai government appeared to draw a line under their indulgent aptitude toward student protests to be gaining momentum since july riot police and water cannon pushed back the protesters and seized the shops many thais and we saw them on social media and on t.v.

the government has also employed new emergency legislation to seize those student leaders and on saturday the police effectively closed off all of the central bangkok to try and stop any more protests taking place the students have also be very results will be using social media they've created flash up more. coal demand the same want the government to step down they want the money he'd be reformed and they want their leaders to be released on the harassment of those taking part in these protests but does this go from here well nobody's quite sure the protests that seem to be able to operate will surely the government will push hard to crack down and it should be remembered that just down the road from here in 2010 the army used live fire against red shirt protest and the generals who are in charge on that

day are running the country today many people here concerned that could happen again. for inside. story on tony. let's bring in our guest joining us from bangkok and that's at my town a pro-democracy activists and leader of the we vote movement in kyoto japan having charge of. associate professor of kyoto university and also in bangkok jade donovan nick chairman of the faculty of law at the college of asian scholars a warm welcome to you all i'd like to begin in bangkok with you that are these protests are getting bigger and bigger and bigger but it's not just the government that's in the firing line this time it's the morning as well and particularly the king what's the difference between these protests and process a decade ago when it wasn't really about the monarchy was it about the monarchy destroyed i think because the number who actually relates and people

was to see that the monarchy needs reform in. saudi to be really under constitution and not being able to interfere with politics that's the main reason i think well let me bring in pavane here as well you're in kyoto now this is a very interesting. period of time for thailand because the king is under much more a microscope than he ever has been before for what many people consider quite eccentric behavior staying in germany taking over $40000000000.00 worth of the country's assets and generally not trying to destroy a constitutional monarchy is that right. well i mean that's quite right observation i think this is about the more not the not behaving constitutionally seems the interim and in 2016 you have seen the king attempting to consolidate his power once

again of the constitution for example you know who had the constitution amended in the election to derogate fair saw that he could exercise more power and you yourself said that it is correct that the king of the transfer of the s.s. under crap of. to be under his or position worth about $60000000000.00 us dollars the king is also allowed we have his private troop and all store to be protected by the left and def the law so i think the students start up has come to term with you know don't judge the man for the reform you know recipe to put it would not be back in the constitution whitest or difficult not so what do you think of that why is is the king trying to reinstill or instill a absolute monarchy i think it is too far too late to say that because i don't have enough evidence. and he is on the

throne far far far just a few yes but we we we see some some sign that is worrying. the 1st thing after we have the new constitution. after it passed the referendum that was the in interference there to amend some class that that that is about the team's authority and that is a worrying sign. donovan ok bangkok also i mean we are looking at a king who is not that popular amongst certainly students certainly the younger end of the population do you think there is a popular mass swelling of support for the for the anti monica movement. well i i will not touch upon the popularity of his majesty the king but i think that question that this students coasting 'd upon their reach team

as well as the establishment and the government as a whole i think it is something to be look at that whether or not the the core of the proposal is actually demonstrating that there is a problem of popularity against the king all 'd is it the problem of the rich him as a whole that we are calling upon every form of democracy in this country that we think that the government is problematic and that we think that overall the institution is the head of state however the control of the country demonstration of the country is within the establishment hands and now the establishment has turned itself into the government and that might be the actual problem so if we can tackle this issue together i think the question of popularity of the king might not

be of a question but if it's this this king has is particularly controversial he lives in germany jade he doesn't respect numbers time he's trying to change the constitution and you're effectively saying that actually the process that should be processing is the government not the monarchy but this is a monarchy that is actually taking steps that are encouraging people to question his rule now i think if you look at the amendment to the constitution that has been raised that his majesty the king amended to so himself if you look at the draft constitution as a whole when he was drafted it was drafted under 'd the reign of king robot and i. that had been many issues during such time that were written in order 'd to work their way out in their reign of king or on monday night we

don't know what is that mean an what is with his majesty king $110.00 that his majesty has to stay in germany but the way in which his majesty is working under this current constitution also linked to the amendment to the constitution so that his majesty will be able 'd to serve the country better so i think if we look at it this way we will find out and that there is also some issues some aspects of the constitution that of course yes it is amend it might have to be very wise in the future but it's not caring towards the power all the royal pure operative of his majesty the king but caring towards how his majesty the king can work for the country more effectively yes but this is a king who has introduced the lez just laws which allow people to go to jail for

criticism of the monarchy for up to 14 years that's a 15 years rather and that's a just tell me i mean when you listen to somebody like jade what are your thoughts do you think that you're not being respectful enough of the time when a key and actually what you're doing is incredibly disrespectful. i don't think that talk about me when he said not respectful because of yes the i think i have never done that i think among the pro-democracy movement there there is a diversity among us the way we may have the same aim and the same goal that we want to reform the monarchy because there are a few laws that is problematic as well for its for example the less matters than law which is not in line with the global spend are for the rules a lot but among among the movement we have some people who are quite radical in the way they communicate we have some people who community it rudely are even the

famed the famed that are communicate in the way that you should not actually do that to anybody left alone being that are not and there are people who are just coming on the principle and and that that should be ok with every yes including the day and maybe of the ryan list so i think it is an important point that it's a very city among the pro-democracy movement and are those who have the same goal in moving the country forward to be in the international standard of democracy and constitutional monarchy the way we communicate affect people or people's fear living and that may may be the factor that that caused some of the major conflicts here. pavane in character so it's very interesting that what we're

seeing to develop between our 2 guests different sides of the same protest coin is that the monic he is seen to be quite a powerful institution but unlike in the u.k. where you have this free spirit head almost mocking of the monarchy in some points even if you're critical of the monarchy there still seems to be a knowledge of it that it is a powerful institution does that make this protest unique and a bit more difficult to try and get change. well i guess you know i mean the conversation these contestants start to bore me because i don't know why the other presenter the artist commented the best if you do not get to the point just call out the coach c'mon you know we are doubt here and we know what we know what is the problem. it is ok to criticize them or not be and no matter how radical you are i mean you're talking about an institution that is saudi was for

a lot of people who have been under this regime for so long being dominated for so long you know when that benefit being kicked the tech away taken away i think you have to understand that this is a methodist. and the way that they rest on to you know in their protests could come across as radical i think it is ok with that right and this also compared with the u.k. more not to the british monarchy i have lived in the u.k. for many years and i can see a big difference big difference so well as you can mock you know the queen it's just ok because i mean the queen has certain status and and that she is to them and powerful even when she allows you know her people who criticize her i think that is it's not only true to make them or not remain powerful but also to be men. and also read for other people as well coming back to the time we're not this

is totally different issue we know the you know the problem with the let's make this the law it has become you know of course a weapon anyone can use to use this law to under my door open and so i think the more they use the law less majestic the more it could damage reputation of the one and that has been the issue the problem with the time when not you for so long gentle guessing characters suggesting that this monica is using laws against its own people that may well but 5 to be the less majesty lowered and the community any criticism of the of the monarchy you could face 15 years in jail is the monetary setting his powers. well no and i think i have 20 aspects to discuss here i i can agree with the when the 1st aspect that the some of the politicians and perhaps some of what part of the establishment

in a long time of the thai history throughout many many coup step had happened and used the list majestic laws to suppress its opponents that i can agree with and i think that's wrong in itself and i don't think that has something to do with king rama the 10s our current came directly at all because in raising the imprisonment of the less majestic law here in this country that happened long ago i think it was during the time that his majesty our current king was just appointed from by his majesty king my grandmother nine's as the crown prince so that's the 1st thing that yes i can agree with the 2nd thing is that when we look at insulting when we're looking at defaming i think we have to differentiate between those and mocking our tontine and

differentiate east with what we call commenting criticizing i think we can comment we can criticize but i think taunting someone mocking someone. even when someone raised the issue of yes her majesty queen elizabeth the 2nd didn't mind but i think that is also disrespectful to majesty queen elizabeth the 2nd but there is a problem. there is a good day there is a difference between being critical and protesting the fact that the king spends most of his time in germany he's transferring $40000000000.00 from the state to a personal fund he is making moves so say the protesters to try and bring in an absolute want to keep those are fair criticisms are they not. well i think i'm not

sure about being fair or not but i can i can accept that that is car comment are criticising ok but what i was saying is that if it's up to the level of insulting or defaming it's wrong against everyone not only his majesty the king ok then the issue is that i think we have to tackle the real problem of this country and if we get through with the real problem of this country and if you think that hardly under a constitutional monarchy or democracy with king as head of state there is a problem in there i think we can call for reform of the regime of democracy with king as head of state or reform of the reach of constitutional monarchy but not attacking directly to reform the monarchy or 'd to to discipline the conduct of his majesty to keep i think we have to separate all of these issues from each other in bangkok what our guest other guest in bangkok seems to be saying is

that yes you can protest yes you can be critical however you can mock or insult the king but the laws are so wide and can be interpreted in many different ways are you worried that free comment fair criticism is going to be used against you and it will be seen as an insult and therefore you might be arrested. ok let me correct you a little bit i did not say that you cannot mock the king but i say that the way of communication may make the aim of reform becoming more difficult because we have to we have to me that the context in thailand the monarchy is part of the culture for a long long time and sometimes it is done with propaganda and we are we are not that which mean there fractions in does

a society and there is like to coalesce in the society and in order to make the reform possible you need the buy even from all parties are even and you need a consensus in order for the reform to take place and that's why i put a very high importance of how we communicate and yes i agree we should be able to criticize we should be able to to mock at a certain level of by certain people you cannot control the whole population. but in order for the real reform to make place we have to at the same time we talk we also have to have to listen and see what the other side being and that was my quite so far for your question about whether or not we can criticise fraley we cannot because at the moment when when they and they do and use the last month as the law and we believe by the order of the king and the law is the u.s.

for example or the computer crime act. in law which. we theri haase punishment and that is even more damaging to our rule of law in the country because the. authority who tried to have these toit the hero in that in order to make a. person you have tea and that is not right i would rather they use the less my just in law and trying to use of the word law which is not relevant to the act of the person and this is where the problem he's weak because we really cannot yet be formed the monarchy and because he cannot the parliament will not even talk about amending the list much as the law and when you try to avoid using a story that's where we all running out of actually already out of time and i do when it comes to our other guests as well and we will come back to you hopefully

pov in less over the international. community just very quickly in germany the bundestag members of the bundestag of the parliament there have been very quietly warning about the king being spending all this time in germany they're very uncomfortable with him consolidating power from germany who's backing the king who are his allies well i guess. i mean rather what happened in the german parliament was not really surprising to anyone else because as you said the king staying most of the time in germany n. i think the key issue here is basically the king might have been if the sizing his power you know under the german sovereignty saw there are 2 issues here if you want to go into it one is for a king to to bleach german sovereignty the other one is whether what it would a king has been doing in term of exercise exercise it is assessing his power on

german soil whether it could become effective under the post operant the so i mean this could become sort of legal complications are i mean there's a lot of proof you know if you want to do so or for example the king has ratified you know has cite a number of official documents for example the royal guess that you know you can check when the stockmen were dated i'm sure that a lot of them were dated during which time the king stay in germany so does is clearly i mean this is how the german parliament would like to highlight that even while he is staying in germany again he's exercising his power saw i mean if it is not illegal at this point it is definitely undue sure and appropriate so i think i was told that the german parliament would continue to look into this even including the issue of duction and healing up up up dissident overseas whether that

would be a kind of involving let me just bring in jamie let me just bring in jade had jade how do you justify the fact that your king is living in germany and ruling almost from in germany. as i said that when the constitution was amended it was amended for his majesty our current king to be able to serve the country more effectively i don't get into how i reckon behavior affects of lives in germany or how does he do that. as i said that i don't get into the issue of why his majesty has to spend his majesty's time in germany but i look at how its majesty is able to work and work effectively for the country the brighter they are they now time bankole do you think is working effectively for the country from germany. i don't know enough detail to comment on that because of basically just have to sign some some some papers and.

there was some law that that was delayed i remember but i cannot remember the detail here i think that information is still too late not to comment on that part and you had some things being very animated there tell us what you were thinking well yeah i mean how could how how could you talk about in effectiveness when you know the hip hop to stay and working elsewhere i mean i just want to give you a small example that you know we have we have a culture of your search of a good hand of subtle get present present asian the king has the lay disorder many for 3 or 4 years just because you stay outside a country for so long this is something really trivial but if you really want to look at it with something more serious how couldn't be how could you say that this is for the kings or convenience when the king operates with taxpayer money it has to be the people convenience not picking convenience oh my god seriously. i'd like

to thank all our guests. and jade donovan and thank you to the launching you can see the program again any time by missing out website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story and you can also join the conversation twitter handle is at inside story from. the entire team here and live.

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all of latin america for most of my career but no country is alike and it's my job to shed light on how and why. i am fully back to bill in doha with a look at our main stories on al-jazeera hundreds of thousands of people have packed into the center of santiago chile a countdown to a referendum on the constitution protests have been mainly peaceful but they has been some violence including a church burning demonstrations began last october over the raising of metro fares but i've grown to include a call for social change in america and has more from santiago tens of thousands of people families babies children elderly people all here to commemorate the anniversary of what it called the social explosion.