Thailand: Dissolve ruling party, says election watchdog
Thailand was plunged further into political crisis today when the Election Commission ruled that the governing People’s Power Party committed electoral fraud and should be dissolved.
The commission’s secretary general Suthiphon Thawichaikan said the commission voted unanimously to dissolve the People’s Power Party and the case will now go to the public prosecutor’s office which will decide whether it should be submitted to the Constitutional Court for a final ruling.
The commission’s ruling follows allegations of electoral fraud against the party during the December election, in which it won a majority of seats, allowing it to form a government led by prime minister Samak Sundaravej.
Mr Samak is already under pressure to resign, after anti-government protesters took over the prime minister’s residence last week.
Earlier today Mr Samak declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok after street fighting between opponents and supporters of the government left one man dead and dozens injured.
The announcement, broadcast on television stations, said Army Commander General Anupong Paochinda was in charge of peacekeeping under the state of emergency decreed for Bangkok by prime minister Samak Sundaravej.
The emergency suspends many civil liberties and allows the military to police the city.
Mr Samak said that imposing the state of emergency in Bangkok was the “softest” approach to restoring calm and promised the measures would not last long.
He gave no end date for the emergency rule but told a news conference it would be “moderately quick”.
A week of political tension had burst into violence as Samak supporters clashed with People’s Alliance for Democracy protesters who are demanding his resignation and have occupied the grounds of his office compound for a week.
Bands of young men armed with sticks, slingshots and other makeshift weapons chased each other down the boulevards of Bangkok, brutally beating those they managed to catch. Shots were also fired, with reporters seeing at least one man aiming and firing a pistol at a group of people.
One person died from severe head injuries and four others were in a serious condition, two with gunshot wounds, Dr Petchapon Kumtonkitjakarn of the Erawan Medical Centre said. He said 38 people were being treated for injuries at several hospitals.
Police were unable to stop the fighting, which eased only after army troops with riot gear – but no guns – were dispatched to the scene.
The violence heightens a national crisis brought on when the People’s Alliance for Democracy occupied the prime minister’s office compound on August 26 and vowed to hold it until Mr Samak stepped down.
The alliance claims the government is corrupt and too close to ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and recently fled to Britain to escape an array of corruption charges.
The same group organised the massive anti-Thaksin demonstrations in 2006 that helped spark the bloodless coup.
TV stations announced the state of emergency with an unidentified voice reading the decree on behalf of Mr Samak while its text was displayed on the screen.
The provisions, which took about 15 minutes to read, included a ban on gatherings of more than five people, a ban on media dissemination of news likely to panic the public or instigate violence, and mandates for security officials to clear public roads, buildings and other areas.
The terms would allow the military to immediately oust the protesters occupying the prime minister’s premises, and could be seen as giving them the power to shut down a satellite TV station operated by one of the protest leaders.
The protest group has defied police and court orders since last week to evacuate the government facility and clear nearby public roads.
