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Thai Premier unseated

Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

SINGAPORE: Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday unseated politically beleaguered Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat by ordering that his People’s Power Party be disbanded for electoral fraud. Mr. Somchai stands disqualified for elective office for five years.

With this, the Court in Bangkok has disqualified both leaders to become Prime Minister since the “restoration of democracy” earlier this year under a Constitution that was crafted by coup masters and approved in a “referendum.” The Army had toppled Thaksin Shinawatra, a twice-elected leader, in September 2006.

Mr. Somchai and his predecessor, Samak Sundaravej, are seen by their critics as “proxies” for Mr. Thaksin, now in exile as a “fugitive” after his recent conviction in a case of “conflict of interest” relating to his tenure as Prime Minister.

The latest rulings dissolved not only Mr. Somchai’s party but also two of its coalition partners in government. The Court held that the disqualification of any member of a party for poll irregularities of any kind would warrant the dissolution of the party itself under the present Constitution, according to diplomats and independent observers. It was not Mr. Somchai but his associate who was found guilty of electoral malpractice.

The Court’s ruling, amid escalation of unrest against the Somchai Government, was greeted with enthusiasm by the protesters with diverse interests, banded as the “People’s Alliance for Democracy” (PAD).

Thousands of PAD activists, occupying the Suvarnabhumi international airport and a domestic terminal in Bangkok for about a week, were now expected to vacate those places. Their occupation had already thrown civilian air traffic into total disarray.

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