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Thai government wiped out in constitutional ruling
Indonesia News.Net
Tuesday 2nd December, 2008
Thailand's Constitution Court has dissolved the country's ruling People Power Party and two smaller political parties for colluding in election fraud.
The verdict has also banned scores of elected politicians from the three parties from politics for the next five years.
The verdict put an immediate end to the premiership of Somchai Wongsawat and his cabinet.
Pro-government demonstrators wearing red shirts who had gathered outside the court house to protest the controversial case, immediately rejected the verdict.
“Today the court has dissolved the PPP, but PPP followers nationwide will not accept the ruling,” said a leader of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship, as the pro-government supporters have dubbed themselves.
“We don't accept the verdict,” said Paporn Boonkhan, a 46-year-old pro-government protestor from Chiang Rai province. “We will only accept democracy.”
The nine Constitution Court judges on the case had to shift the venue to the Administrative Court building in northern Bangkok to avoid a gathering of the pro-government DAAD, but the protestors quickly moved to the new court.
The Administrative Court was initially under the protection of Thai soldiers armed with M-16 rifles who were later replaced by riot police.
The DAAD is a pro-government movement that is a reverse image of the People's Alliance for Democracy, the anti-government protestors who have occupied Bangkok's two airports, closing off the capital to air traffic in their bid to topple the administration.
The Constitution Court sped up the final hearing of three election fraud cases involving the People Power, Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya parties, which comprise the current coalition government.
The three parties were charged with colluding in violating election laws in the December 23, 2007 polls, by allowing top party executives to participate in vote-buying.
Under the Thai constitution, parties must be dissolved and their key executives banned from politics for five years if even one of their members is found guilty of election fraud.
The court's critics see the hasty sentences as an effort to end Thailand's political crisis through the judiciary.
In the ensuing power vacuum, several scenarios are possible, political observers said.
The remaining members of the People Power Party, which won about 230 out of 480 contested seats in the 2007 general election, are expected to shift to the Puea Thai party, which would hold enough seats to form a new coalition government with remnant members of the Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya parties.
A parliament session will need to be held to elect a new prime minister.
Another possibility is that certain clauses in the constitution may be used to allow the judiciary to appoint a non-elected prime minister and interim government to rule the country on an interim basis prior to a new election.
Such as option might require an endorsement by Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is head of state under Thailand's constitutional monarchy.
While that option is favoured by many Thais as a means of placating the anti-government protestors who are holding Bangkok's two airports hostage, it is not expected to be accepted by government supporters.
The pro-government DAAD are expected to reject any effort to establish a non-elected government.
Government politicians suspect the Constitution Court of working hand-in-hand with the PAD, a loose coalition of groups united only in their desire to prevent a political comeback by fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinwatara, a populist politician who dominated Thai politics during his two-term, 2001-06 premiership and now lives in self-exile.
The PAD is known to have the support of members of Thailand's political elite, including leaders of the army, which toppled Thaksin with a coup in September 2006.
There are worries that the DAAD will launch the kind of street protests and civil disobedience tactics practiced by the PAD over the last six months that have brought the country to its knees.
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Comments on this story
Anonymous
12-02-08, 07:04 AM |
Thai government wiped out in constitutional ruling
A coup is a coup.
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Anonymous
12-02-08, 12:06 PM |
It has to be said. Any eastern democracy HAS to be destroyed from within. That goes for monarchy too. While your all at eachothers throats the big picture will become evident.
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friend of thailand
12-02-08, 09:09 AM |
De-MOCK-racy
Good work PAD you have shown the world that in Thailand you can lose every election but by discraceful tactics still have your way.
You have allowed the highjacking of a democratic country and kept the hands of the military, the crown, and the bangkok elite free of the dirty scandal.
Please go home now and collect your pay.
you have earned it well.
The courts have lent their honor to the hidden faces behind the curtain and corruption will carry on.
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;) Midnight
12-02-08, 02:42 PM |
and so much for De PLOY macy.
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Anonymous
12-02-08, 07:44 PM |
everything can be bought
as we all knew from before the court would disband the party , as what all went to court from the pad , get dismissed, and all from ppp, guilty as charged, now we will have to wait and see if the court is going to make work to lock up the responsibles and most important the master brain ( the guy whom sponsored all these illegal actions )of disrupting and bankrupting the country, locking them up permanently, from this happening again...., as thanks to them thailand has fallen in a deep hole and it will take many years to recover, all thanks to a stupid minority group , thanks PAD....
or when these criminals can walk freely , we all will know what’s wrong in this country..
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Hugh
12-02-08, 10:02 PM |
History Revisited?
There is a danger in not knowing or forgetting history.
A democratic Thailand was an idyll the world adored. A Thailand ruled by a dictator may not be viewed in such a favourable light.
The PAD has indeed achieved through the courts what its lawless actions failed to deliver and there must be joy and jubilation on their part at the verdict thus delivered.
Moscow was a happy place for the Royalty and the elite at the turn of the century. The masses were ignored and suffered miserably. Thus they were ripe for the revolutionary speeches of Lenin.
Perhaps it is time to remember history so that the same mistakes need not be repeated. I would much prefer to refer to thais as the smiling ones rather than as the comrades.
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