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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai Prime Minister Steps Down After Court Decision |
| 2008-12-03 |
| The prime minister of Thailand resigned Tuesday after the nation's Constitutional Court banned him from politics and dissolved three political parties in his ruling coalition, concluding that the government was involved in vote-buying and other irregularities in last year's elections. The ruling against Somchai Wongsawat appeared to break an impasse that has locked the country in spiral of economic destruction. Anti-government activists announced that they would leave two airports they had seized in their drive to remove Somchai's administration from office. The court banned Somchai from politics for five years, along with 108 other officials of his People Power Party and two of its coalition allies. But Somchai's downfall represented only a partial victory for protesters belonging to the opposition People's Alliance for Democracy. Somchai's deputy, Chavarat Charnvirakul, became the acting prime minister, and the coalition formerly headed by Somchai retained its substantial majority in parliament. The coalition is looking to form a new government with fresh leadership early next week. Protesters said they were monitoring developments. "If a puppet government returns or a new government shows its insincerity in pushing for political reform, we will return," said Sondhi Linthongkul, one of the group's leaders. It was not immediately clear why the People's Alliance pulled back with only part of its agenda fulfilled. But even before Tuesday's verdict, it had been coming under increasing pressure as its demonstrations brought the country's vital tourism industry to its knees and threatened to push the country into recession. The Constitutional Court found Somchai's People Power Party and their coalition allies in the Chart Thai and Matchima Thipatai parties guilty of electoral fraud in last December's vote. |
| Posted by:Fred |