Thaksin ban reshapes Thailand politics

THAILAND: Thailand faced an uncertain political future Thursday after a top court banned ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his party from contesting promised elections later this year.

The ruling raises question marks over the credibility of the poll and the restoration of democracy promised by the military junta which deposed him in September last year.

"I think it is going to be very rocky, very turbulent, unless they can win over Thai Rak Thai voters," said political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

"They have not made any effort to do that. ... There is a big gap here, there is a neglected electorate," he added. Now living in self-imposed exile, Thaksin was said by his lawyer to be sad at the "unexpected and disappointing" verdict delivered late Wednesday by Thailand's Constitutional Tribunal.

Chaturon Chaisang, the current leader of the former prime minister's Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party, on Thursday urged the movement's estimated 14 million loyalists to respect the ruling for the sake of national stability.

But he also called the verdict an attempt to punish elected leaders.

"It's as if my party members were executed for breaking a glass window while those who made the rules had burned down the house," the former deputy prime minister told Thai media. The court found Thaksin's party guilty of electoral fraud in April 2006 elections, which were later annulled amid a flurry of allegations of wrongdoing. The court, which was appointed by the junta, dissolved the party and banned Thaksin from politics for five years.

"The Thai Rak Thai party did not respect the rule of law," one judge said, adding that it "cannot exist as a political party."

A group with links to Thaksin has vowed to hold a rally in central Bangkok later Thursday in protest at the decision. People's Television, whose leaders were once senior TRT executives, drew crowds of about 4,000 to an anti-junta demonstration in April, but one of the organisers told AFP he hoped 30,000 people would turn out this time.

Security will remain high in the capital for the next few days because "a few hundred" people have been hired to create disturbances, local media quoted a source at the Council for National Security (CNS) as saying.

The troublemakers allegedly are being supported by people with ties to "old power," the source said, referring to Thaksin.

Authorities had already deployed hundreds of police on the streets and put thousands of soldiers on alert ahead of Wednesday's ruling.

Prime Minister Surayad Chulanont has said he may impose a state of emergency if there is any unrest. Reacting to the ruling, Thai newspapers said they hoped it would clear the air after more than a year of political turmoil.

"Finally, the sky over Thailand is clear after years of gloom which pushed the country into a crisis," the Krungthep Thurakij Business Daily said in an editorial.

"The verdicts serve as a lesson for unscrupulous politicians that they must play by the rules, or face the consequences," the Bangkok Post wrote, urging Thaksin supporters to look to the future.

"With millions of supporters, they should move on, even without their brand name. In politics, there is still life after death." The tribunal had earlier cleared Thailand's second main party and Thai Rak Thai's rival, the Democrat Party, of fraud.

The ruling Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva thanked the tribunal and said his four-million-strong party was looking forward to the December polls.

"Tomorrow we will have a more important mission, that is to swiftly restore democratic rule under the constitution," he said. Three minor parties were dissolved by the tribunal, which also found them guilty of fraud connected to the April 2006 polls.

Bangkok, Thursday, AFP