THAILAND:Thailand's military-appointed constitutional tribunal yesterday banned Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted prime minister, from politics and dissolved his Thai Rak Thai party. The move radically redefines the Thai political landscape and raises questions about the restoration of genuine democracy.
Amid a tight security clampdown in Bangkok, the tribunal ruled that two top Thai Rak Thai leaders - Thammarak Issaragura, a former defence minister, and Pongsak Raktapongpaisal, a former transport minister - violated election laws by paying two small parties to run in controversial April 2006 polls, which were boycotted by the main opposition parties, and later annulled.
The court ruled that Thai Rak Thai - which revolutionised national politics with its aggressive courtship of poor rural voters, and won landslide election victories in 2001 and 2005 - had to be held accountable for the actions of its two leaders.
The ruling came eight months after a bloodless military coup drove Mr Thaksin from power and thwarted an election that his party was expected to win.
The court also invoked a military edict to order that 111 top Thai Rak Thai party leaders, including Mr Thaksin, who is in exile, be barred from contesting elections for the next five years.
The verdict came hours after the tribunal cleared the Democrat party, the second largest party, of electoral wrongdoing, leaving its leaders eligible to run in parliamentary elections, which the military has promised to hold in December.
Prior to the verdicts, read live on national television over more than 10 hours, Surayud Chulanont, the military-installed prime minister, warned he would declare a state of emergency should violence erupt.
Thousands of security officers were fanned around Bangkok yesterday while many Thai political websites - including pro-Thaksin sites, and independent political chat-rooms - were shut down by authorities, fearing they would incite Thai Rak Thai supporters into unrest.
Some analysts warn that Thai Rak Thai's dissolution is a major setback for Thailand's quest for political normalcy, and that the party's loyal followers could register their dismay either by taking to the streets, or by rejecting a proposed constitution in an upcoming national referendum.