Thailand's Constitutional Court has nullified last month's controversial snap polls and ordered new elections, a spokesman said.
The court's judges agreed in an 8-6 decision that the April 2nd polls were unconstitutional, a court spokesman said. They also agreed in a 9-5 decision to nullify the results and call new elections, he added.
Specifically, the court found that the date of the election was unfair, and that the arrangement of polling stations had compromised the secrecy of the ballot, Mr Paiboon Varahapaitoon said.
"The court found the April 2 election date was inappropriate and unfair, which contravenes the Election Commission's duty to organise free and fair elections."
"The arrangement of the polling stations also violated the requirement for voting to be done in secret," he added.
The complaint to the court - filed by a law lecturer and a Thai election watchdog - had argued that the election date was set only 37 days after parliament was dissolved, and had not given opposition parties enough time to organise campaigns.
They also had argued that the voting booths had been arranged so that it could be seen how voters had ticked their ballots.
Agencies