Bangkok - Thailand's Office of the Attorney General on
Friday requested the Constitution Court accept a case seeking to
dissolve the People Power Party (PPP), the lead party in the
coalition government.
The case, if accepted, was expected to lead to the disbandment of
the PPP because the same court already convicted former PPP deputy
leader Yongyuth Tiyapairat of committing election fraud in the
December 23 polls.
Under Thailand's constitution, if the executive of a political
party is found guilty of committing fraud or vote-buying, the entire
party must be dissolved and its executives banned from politics for
five years.
The PPP is closely linked to former prime minister Thaksin
Shinawatra who was ousted by a coup on September 19, 2006, and whose
Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved by a constitutional tribunal in May
last year when the country was under a military-appointed interim
government.
The same tribunal banned Thaksin and 110 former Thai Rak Thai
executives from participating in politics for five years.
The tribunal's ruling, however, did not prevent Thaksin's
political allies from setting up the PPP as a proxy party.
The PPP won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the
December elections after campaigning on a pro-Thaksin platform and
promises to renew his populist policies, which were attractive to
Thailand's urban and rural poor.
But the party has had problems ruling.
Thailand's judiciary has consistently ruled against leading PPP
politicians in a host of corruption and abuse-of-power cases this
year, which have already claimed one PPP prime minister.
On September 9, the Constitution Court ruled that former prime
minister Samak Sundaravej was guilty of moonlighting for hosting
television cooking shows during his premiership and sacked him.
The PPP's right to rule has also been seriously undermined by the
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a loose coalition of
conservative groups that has been protesting against the government
since May.
Thousands of PAD followers seized Government House on August 26
and have occupied the seat of the administration since then.
On Tuesday, the PAD laid siege to Parliament in a failed bid to
prevent newly appointed Prime Minister Somchai Wonsawat, who happens
to be Thaksin's brother-in-law, from reading his policy statement,
which officially legitimized his rule.
When police attempted to disperse the PAD crowd with tear gas, the
movement went on the offensive, leading to a clash between police and
protestors that left two dead and about 440 injured.
The government and police have been severely criticized for
resorting to violence, but only a few Thai academics have criticized
the PAD's attack on Parliament.
'The PAD are the self-appointed agenda-setters,' said Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn
University. 'They are becoming a bulldozing force.'
The PAD, which is staunchly pro-monarchy and highly critical of
the type of 'money politics' Thaksin came to represent, has drawn
many of Bangkok's middle class to its ranks and enjoys the tacit
support of Thailand's political elite.
Its leadership espouses a return to a form of government dependent
on appointees and bureaucrats, similar to Thailand's system under an
absolute monarchy.
The absolute monarchy was ended in 1932, turning Thailand into a
constitutional monarchy under a democratic form of government.
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