PHUKET has a protest to call its own at long last, but there was not a red shirt in sight as about 100 people marched through the city streets today.

It was not a yellow protest either, although the large Thai flag under which some protesters marched looked very much like one that was used in Peoples' Alliance for Democracy parades before the present government of Abhisit Vejjajiva was installed.

Some of the voices and the faces were certainly familiar. Today's protest, though, was just by ''ordinary Phuket people'' who want the government to stay in office and go for its full term, with elections one year and nine months away.

They also do not want Parliament to be suspended, not do they want the Constitution to be changed. Oddly enough, these demands are the exact opposite of what the red shirts have been insisting on for two weeks on the streets of Bangkok.

The group, spokesperson Aparat Chutikamjorn said, is simply named ''Thai People.'' Khun Aparat, a former PAD spokesperson, said the new group was keen to know who was behind the violence of the small bombs in Bangkok.

''This kind of violence reverberates to Phuket and other tourist areas, so it needs to be prevented,'' she said.

At Provincial Hall, the group of marchers presented a letter to Governor Wichai Praisa-ngob to pass on to PM Abhisit.

To prevent anxiety among tourists, the governor has previously insisted that street protests be held away from tourist areas on Phuket.

The marchers walked through the heart of Phuket City and Old Phuket Town from the dragon statue in the park near the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to the Metropole Circle, down Phuket Road, into Dibuk Road, around the the one way system then out to Provincial Hall.