Ex PM Thaksin’s party banned
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Leaders of the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party have criticised a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court ordering its dissolution. A tense calm reins in Bangkok as hundreds of policemen are deployed ahead of today’s demonstration against last September’s coup d’état.
The court said the TRT broke election laws during polls in April of last year and ruled that it should be disbanded, and some 110 party officials, including Mr Thaksin, should be barred from politics.
The TRT won the elections in 2001 and 2005 and has some 14 million members. The 2006 elections were cancelled for fraud.
TRT party chief, Chaturon Chaisaeng, said the decision was unfair and inspired by those who seized power, “even if that power comes from the barrel of a gun”. Still he urged party members to respect it.
TRT leaders plan to appeal the ruling. So does former Prime Minister and TRT founder Thaksin Shinawatra, who has been in exile in London since September 2006. His spokesman in the British capital said that he accepts the decision with humility even if he considers it too harsh and calls on the government to hold fresh new elections as soon as possible.
Experts note that the ruling might spark protest, especially since it has decapitated the TRT leadership. The party in fact still retains widespread popularity, especially in rural areas, and its followers can create a new party.
Earlier, the same court found Thailand's second most popular party, the Democratic Party (DP), not guilty on six charges of election fraud.
The court ruled that the DP had not smeared the TRT or its leader, did not urge voters to abstain from voting, and did not try to sway candidates of smaller parties to influence the outcome.
The Constitutional Tribunal cleared the DP’s Deputy Secretary General Thavorn Senniem of obstructing candidates of smaller parties from running in the April election and the party’s deputy leader, Trairong Suvannakhiri, from blocking other parties and candidates.
The country experienced yesterday’s rulings as a day of judgment for its future given what consequences the dissolution of its two main parties might have had.
Analysts note however that the longer the military keeps the power it peacefully seized last year the harder it will be for the country’s young democracy to recover. And with a stagnant economy foreign investors have kept their distance.
The military-backed government set up after the coup has pledged a new constitution and fresh elections before the end of 2007.
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