THAILAND’S military coup leaders said at the weekend that they will dissolve the country’s senate and assume all law-making powers.

Saturday’s announcement stripped away the last democratic institution in the country a mere two days after the military seized power.

The military junta suspended the constitution and dissolved the lower house of parliament on Thursday. 

It had left the senate in place, presumably in hopes that the upper house might later approve its measures. 

The reason for Saturday’s about-face is not known.

A spokesman for the coup leaders said that democracy had caused “losses” for the country, as hundreds of protesters angrily confronted soldiers in central Bangkok.

Small protests have persisted since the army seized power on Thursday after months of conflict.

Troops fanned out in Bangkok yesterday and blocked access to the city’s Skytrain in an attempt to prevent a third day of anti-coup protests. 

But they were met by a crowd of about 1,000 people shouting: “Get out, get out, get out.”

At one point a group of soldiers was chased away by the crowds at the Ratchaprasong shopping district. 

By mid-afternoon, soldiers were blocking off elevated walkways and Skytrain stops in the area were suspended. 

Coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha had warned people earlier not to join anti-coup street protests, saying normal democratic principles could not be applied.

The junta has defended the detention of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and most of the deposed government’s cabinet. 

It also ordered dozens of activists, academics and journalists to surrender themselves to military authorities.

The intractable divide plaguing the country is part of a power struggle between an elite conservative minority, backed by powerful businessmen and staunch royalists based in Bangkok and the south, which can no longer win elections, and supporters of the Shinawatra government in the rural north, who back it because of popular policies such as free healthcare.

The army, which has publicly attempted to claim independence from both sides, has always backed the royalist establishment, with General Chan-ocha known to be virulently against the populist policies of Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party.