Thai Protesters Obstruct Vote; 1 Dead in Violence Anti-government demonstrators swarmed dozens of polling stations in Thailand on Sunday to stop advance voting for next week's general elections, chaining gates shut, threatening voters and preventing hundreds of thousands of people from casting ballots. A protest faction leader was fatally shot in a confrontation near a polling center that also left 11 people wounded, and isolated street brawls broke out in several parts of Bangkok. The chaos underscored the precariousness of Thailand's fragile democracy, and the increasing weakness of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's elected administration. Yingluck had called the Feb. 2 vote in a failed bid to ease months of street protests, but police did not disperse the crowds because of longstanding orders to avert violence, which many fear would give the all-powerful army reason to stage a coup. Although most polling stations in Bangkok and many in the opposition stronghold in the south were forced to close, voting proceeded largely unhindered in the rest of the country. Still, the upheaval proved that demonstrators struggling to overthrow Yingluck have the ability to disrupt the main vote next week, and the country's electoral commission is unlikely to stand in their way. The commission, which agrees with protesters that the poll should be delayed, is legally mandated to ensure registered voters are able to cast ballots safely. But on Sunday, its members "just sat down and watched this thing collapse around them," said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. The commission is supposed to be a neutral body, but critics have accused its members of taking sides. Its top executive has posed for at least one smiling photo with demonstrators, and its officials failed to denounce a violent effort by protesters to disrupt candidate registration in December. Similarly on Sunday, the commission issued no public condemnation of attempts to derail voting. Sunai said members did not call on security forces to defend the ballot. Analysts say that is because courts and the country's independent oversight agencies are largely aligned against the current government in collusion with the army, royalists and powerful businessmen. Yingluck is facing several legal cases that could end with her or her party being banished from governing because of alleged corruption or violations of the constitution. Suthida Sungkhapunthu, a 28-year-old office worker, said she turned back from one polling station after reading news of the day's mayhem on her phone. "I saw this coming but I'm still quite disappointed," she said, calling the protesters "undemocratic" as she watched a mob surrounding her polling station a block away. "It's my constitutional right" to vote, she said. The protest movement, known as the People's Democratic Reform Committee, had pledged not to obstruct the poll, saying its supporters would only stand outside to express their views and urge people not to vote. Protest spokesman Akanat Promphan told The Associated Press that those who had locked the gates of polling stations had "acted on their own," but he did not criticize them and said the decision to close stations was made by Election Commission officials.