Crushdepth

Never seen the airport so quiet

Sent from somewhere in the Pacific

An M79 grenade launcher, what a surprise.

Sent from somewhere in the Pacific

The next puppet will be just as unacceptable as this one.

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One poster said the reds 6 times champs, BUT a record 6 times thrown out ?????

Including twice for electoral fraud and once for getting a little bit too...authoritarian. Champions of democracy, yep, right.

Tell me again, who was running the country and who ignored the advice of the Election Commission?

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Yet again a less than honest post.

No one said there was a huge spike. It's pretty obvious to anyone that transparency (corruption in other words) has been progressively going downhill since 2001.

Your attempt to defend Thaksin is laughable given the number of serious fraudulent cases outstanding that he ran away from. All you seem to propagate is that he's a victim and all the charges are demonisation - showing abject ignorance (or bias).

AS for the king admonishing Thaksin - that's been openly discussed in the Bangkok Post and Nation on numerous occasions.

The point is that Thaksin is no better and no worse than what Thailand has experienced throughout its sordid and corrupt history.

The anti democracy movement makes Thaksin out to be extraordinarily over the top when it comes to corruption when he plainly is not.

Every international rating, ranking, poll, survey, investigation or report is identical in their lack of extreme aberrations in whatever metric they're using indicating Thaksins' is guilty of a monstrous, unheard of, level of corruption.

When it comes to corruption he is the equal of those opposed to him, no more and no less.

Take away the Thaksin is super corrupt argument from the anti democrats and what have they got left to justify their actions.

Nothing.

Thailand has had 18 coups, do a little research and you will see the same two false justifications given for just about all of them.

Corruption and a threat to the monarchy.

The Thais masses aren't falling for the same claptrap again, the jig is up.

Tell me, if Thaksin is in fact equally or less corrupt than what preceded him and those who currently oppose him, what justification is their for this ongoing attempted coup.

http://www.heritage.org/index/country/thailand

As for the other bit, the admonishing, I'm not denying it occurred because it did. I am simply stating that no robust discussion or debate can take place on such a subject matter. Which is unfortunate, but it's the law, so I obey.

Hello, look at the state of the nation. Thaksin is a pox on this country, he divided it and now nobody can pull it back together.

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With a grossly incompetent EC it appears there will never again be an election in Thailand again. All any party has to to is stop

candidate registrations in a handful of seats and follow that up with blocking voting venues and voilà, never an election again.

Now all Suthep has to do is appoint himself and his hand picked appointees to his leadership council and he will be able to feed

at the trough for decades. His own party can block any elections so he will kindly stay at the helm. This own track record shows

he is very capable of lining his pockets. Well done Suthep.

How exactly do you suggest the EC stop protesters blocking polling stations and candidate registrations? The government couldn't do it even with a state of emergency in force and the army to back up the police. It's the government that is incompetent.

First, there is no reports of a bunch of rotten Rice.

The first few rice sales were very low. But once countries started to see a reliable supply of rice and the quality was OK..prices went up.

Second, just a few days ago they update the total sales of Rice for the past 2 months. It equated to 10,200B / Ton. They bought the rice at 15,000B/ton and the original rice and sold at 10,200B/ton +/-. So yes, they lost money. They expected to lose 20-25% which is what is budgeted for year 2013. They lost 32%.. Not good...but not a disaster. Obviously, there are high risks in trying to do this sort of scheme. Certainly hope they realize this sort of thing can't happen again. Do remember, Years 2011 & 2012 were successful and on target.

Iraq announced they wouldn't buy any more Thai rice until the quality improves. They were the largest buyer.

Independent law academic Verapat says Constitutional Court overrules charter

BANGKOK: -- Independent law academic Verapat Pariyawong said the Constitutional Court had overruled the constitution as the Charter allowed for elections to be staged at a later date if all the House seats were not occupied.

The charter stated that if 95 per cent of all House of Representative seats were occupied members could convene. It requires the seats to be fully occupied within 180 days.

There are 500 House of Representative constituencies.

"In my view, the Constitutional Court has ruled in a way that is against the constitution both in terms of the content and the process," Verapat said.

"However, the court did not bring the cause of the [problems related to] the election in the 28 constituencies, the obstruction of the election, into consideration.

-- The Nation 2014-03-21

That is exactly what I've been saying.

Therefore it is right!

It's wrong. The 180 day remedy mentioned in Article 93 only applies if the house has *not less* than 95% occupancy. If it's less (and it is) it does not apply.

unfortunately the CC has brought this upon itself - CHAOS!!!

Oh come on be fair about it - the government created this mess with their appalling amnesty bill and made it worse by insisting to push ahead with an election when the EC advised them it was not possible. They have no one but themselves and their own arrogance to blame.

I oppose Phuea Thai's relentless stupidity.

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It is going to be a long hot summer, with factional malevolence aplenty. More squandering of that most precious resource - time. But it hard for the CC to have taken any other action really, the election was a mess because of the vote-stopping movement, and the failure of the opposition to step up their political game and provide a credible alternative to the current nest of vipers.

Everybody I speak to over here says the same thing, they are sick to their boots of both these main parties, and they want a whole new party that actually concentrates on Thailand as a whole and not just on the specialised interests of their party funders. I have to agree with my Thai friends on this one, I don't see anything in the future except a lot more headlines like this one in the OP, unless there is a genuine seachange towards moderate mainstream parties and these two extremist parties become gradually marginalised and forgotten.

Thailand does need a 'new way' and it ain't Suthep's, Thaksins, Abhisit's or thugs on either side stopping elections on a technicality

wherefore art thou Aung San Suu Kyi, Mandela, Ghandi, Kennedy or Churchill?

all Thailand has are 'pretenders' that bicker over self-interest like spoilt children in the playground - and Thailand suffers

Abhsit, Suthep, Thaksin and all of his family are politically contaminated and have to go. Too many people hate them for there to be peace while they are still around.

So people are buying this overpriced, rotting rice.

They're selling it well below market price

You're wrong and you don't get how state agencies work. If the EC believes the election will be disrupted the correct course of action is to advise the government, which they did. It then becomes the government's responsibility to decide what to do - they ignored the advice and said go ahead. So who is responsible? The government, it was their decision. They are also the people who created the with the amnesty bill in the first place

The EC does not have the authority to order the army about and the police have systematically failed to disperse any large scale protest from either side. They are completely and utterly useless.

It cannot be the sitting governments option to arbitrarily decide not to run an election. That is definitely the fastest road to dictatorship known. The responsiblity should I suppose be for the the EC to petition the courts to issue arrest warrants for people preventing it from carrying out its constitutional responsiblity, and for the authorities to actively confront protestors and anyone preventing or deliberatly preventing the carrying out of an election. No one can simply say they don't want to try to carry out an election because it's hard or dangerous. You are compelled by the law to carry out your constitutional responsibnlities. If you don't, you better have a legal judegement why you didn't do it.

Army's can't disobey orders and civilians can't disobey the constitution. That is pretty simple really.

It should be incumbent on the EC, to commandeer any state assets required to facilitate an election. You cannot cower in the corner and say you won't do it. If they won't carry out the election fire them, and appoint a bunch who will.

You're letting the government off the hook way too lightly here. They were in charge of security, not the EC. They had a state of emergency in place and the army under their command and they still failed to prevent the polls being disrupted.

There's no mention of when a fresh new election will be held. This court obviously wants to deliberately create a power vacuum. These right-wing machinations are now so brazen and transparent it is a national embarrassment.

People who know they are going to lose, cheat, usually by making up the rules as they go along. It's corruption on a cosmic scale, and this form of corruption is now the primary means which the right-wing/royalist/yellow side uses to gain power without an electoral mandate. They've done it before so of course they will try it again.

Given that the two sides seem to be of roughly equal power (at least while the army is keeping out of it), I can only see two solutions: one is the miraculous appearance of a non-aligned, capable, charismatic (and liberal) leader who can set up a new party on a new set of principles - an opportunity there for somebody.

The other is to accept this nonsense with forbearance until a simple and inevitable stroke of force majeure changes the political landscape radically.

Judicial conspiracy theories are not necessary. The EC publicly warned the government ad nauseum that it was not possible to conduct an election under the circumstances, and the government disregarded the EC's advice. The court is merely interpreting the law, what else would you have them do? It's up to the government and the EC to work out a new election date - but not before the government does some (I would imagine, rather ugly) politicking to make the poll possible.

.

Once an election has been called it is an absolute requirement of the constitution that it be held within six weeks of the house dissolution. The only role of the EC is to then organise the election. What on earth ever gave you the idea that the EC has the authority to warn the government of Thailand that it should break its obligations under the constitution?

Also, who told you that " it's up to the government and the EC to work out a new election date"? Only governments have the authority to call elections. I thought everyone knew that.

The EC has an OBLIGATION to warn the government if it believes the election is unfeasible it can't carry out its duties, it's standard duty of care. They would have been negligent if they didn't, and as it turns out they were right.

Since the political environment hasn't improved, the government unilaterally calling another election will have the same result, ie. failure. Obviously they need to consult the EC on how to create an environment in which a poll can successfully be held and obviously that is going to include some discussion of the date.

Any more questions?

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No questions at all. The one......the only.......obligation on the EC is to do its job and run an election. In a democracy, failure to run an election is not an option. In pursuit of its obligations the EC has the authority to call on the awesome might of the state, both police and army, to ensure that 48 million people are free to cast their votes unhindered. The government, for very good reasons, is prohibited from sending armed forces to polling stations.

If the so-called election commissioners believed they were not up to the job then their proper course would have been to resign. As many people have already pointed out, the present laughable state of affairs gives any gang of goons with guns an absolute veto over democracy in Thailand. Believe you me, that's not a situation that will be tolerated for long.

You're wrong and you don't get how state agencies work. If the EC believes the election will be disrupted the correct course of action is to advise the government, which they did. It then becomes the government's responsibility to decide what to do - they ignored the advice and said go ahead. So who is responsible? The government, it was their decision. They are also the people who created the with the amnesty bill in the first place

The EC does not have the authority to order the army about and the police have systematically failed to disperse any large scale protest from either side. They are completely and utterly useless.

There's no mention of when a fresh new election will be held. This court obviously wants to deliberately create a power vacuum. These right-wing machinations are now so brazen and transparent it is a national embarrassment.

People who know they are going to lose, cheat, usually by making up the rules as they go along. It's corruption on a cosmic scale, and this form of corruption is now the primary means which the right-wing/royalist/yellow side uses to gain power without an electoral mandate. They've done it before so of course they will try it again.

Given that the two sides seem to be of roughly equal power (at least while the army is keeping out of it), I can only see two solutions: one is the miraculous appearance of a non-aligned, capable, charismatic (and liberal) leader who can set up a new party on a new set of principles - an opportunity there for somebody.

The other is to accept this nonsense with forbearance until a simple and inevitable stroke of force majeure changes the political landscape radically.

Judicial conspiracy theories are not necessary. The EC publicly warned the government ad nauseum that it was not possible to conduct an election under the circumstances, and the government disregarded the EC's advice. The court is merely interpreting the law, what else would you have them do? It's up to the government and the EC to work out a new election date - but not before the government does some (I would imagine, rather ugly) politicking to make the poll possible.

.

Once an election has been called it is an absolute requirement of the constitution that it be held within six weeks of the house dissolution. The only role of the EC is to then organise the election. What on earth ever gave you the idea that the EC has the authority to warn the government of Thailand that it should break its obligations under the constitution?

Also, who told you that " it's up to the government and the EC to work out a new election date"? Only governments have the authority to call elections. I thought everyone knew that.

The EC has an OBLIGATION to warn the government if it believes the election is unfeasible it can't carry out its duties, it's standard duty of care. They would have been negligent if they didn't, and as it turns out they were right.

Since the political environment hasn't improved, the government unilaterally calling another election will have the same result, ie. failure. Obviously they need to consult the EC on how to create an environment in which a poll can successfully be held and obviously that is going to include some discussion of the date.

Any more questions?

There's no mention of when a fresh new election will be held. This court obviously wants to deliberately create a power vacuum. These right-wing machinations are now so brazen and transparent it is a national embarrassment.

People who know they are going to lose, cheat, usually by making up the rules as they go along. It's corruption on a cosmic scale, and this form of corruption is now the primary means which the right-wing/royalist/yellow side uses to gain power without an electoral mandate. They've done it before so of course they will try it again.

Given that the two sides seem to be of roughly equal power (at least while the army is keeping out of it), I can only see two solutions: one is the miraculous appearance of a non-aligned, capable, charismatic (and liberal) leader who can set up a new party on a new set of principles - an opportunity there for somebody.

The other is to accept this nonsense with forbearance until a simple and inevitable stroke of force majeure changes the political landscape radically.

Judicial conspiracy theories are not necessary. The EC publicly warned the government ad nauseum that it was not possible to conduct an election under the circumstances, and the government disregarded the EC's advice. The court is merely interpreting the law, what else would you have them do? It's up to the government and the EC to work out a new election date - but not before the government does some (I would imagine, rather ugly) politicking to make the poll possible.

Apologies if this point has been made already, the judges seem to have set a precedent here:

An election not held entirely on the same day is invalid, therefore in the future anytime a disaffected party or group of individuals feel an election is not going to go their way all they have to do is block one polling station and there goes the election.

Please tell me I'm wrong.

You're right, but now that both sides know about the tactic they're going to have to talk. And work something out.

Maybe they forgot to pay a few bills (eg. rice), and this is a reminder?

Was there any doubt? The election was a failure. The protestors did their job and stopped the election while the police did nothing at all. Government will blame the EC for this but the fact is the police failed miserably in their jobs to protect the polling stations.

Police did a fine job taking care of the mess the EC created.

As far as I'm aware no one actually died on polling day and that's the most important thing.

The Reds can win elections any day of the week into the distant future, so nothing's been lost, only delayed.

The police did a fine job? What a joke. Give up now, you're hopeless.

What does the constitution say about deliberately blocking the electorates right to vote?

Nothing, but doubtless it is an offence under various laws + the previous SOE restrictions.

You and six judges are incorrect in your interpretation of the law.

Section 108 includes this line:

"Dissolution of the House of Representatives is made through a Royal Decree in which the day for new general election must be fixed within 60 days and the election date must be the same throughout the Kingdom. "

So it is saying what the royal decree must state. And the RD clearly stated elections are to take place on Feb 2nd. So the RD was valid. This then allows for advanced voting to take place on a different date without nulling the validity of the election.

Sorry, I will bet on the 6 judges knowing more about this than you.

Don't forget that there were also 3 judges who agrees with NCFC's point. Just because the "majority" ruled thus, does not necessarily make it right, as your side of the fence like to say over and over again.

They probably disagreed for some other reason than NCFC's point.

As much as want to see the backs of the corrupt and cheating Shinawatwa's, I think this is a bad day for Thailand as it has set a president whereby next time the PTP (or what ever name they are going by at the time) could use the same tactics to nullify an election.

Now both parties have got a reason to sit down at the negotiating table.