Bangkok on high alert for violence

[Plus]

Judges for the Tribunal were nominated from other courts, not handpicked by the junta. Just a few days ago HM The King himself gave them another speech on importance of being true to the law.

I don't think it's fair to accuse the court of bending justice towards the generals, more like the generals staged the coup to bend the country towards justice instead.

[John K]

Not that it means anything but I just looked out my window and noted storm clouds and some lightning flashes in the general area of Rama 3 road.

[womble]

Not that it means anything but I just looked out my window and noted storm clouds and some lightning flashes in the general area of Rama 3 road.

Must be part of the Phitak 1 plan..........

[sriracha john]

Are any of the main accussed TRT in the courtroom?

Can't see Thamarrak.

Who's there?

Just the new leader of TRT and some others who I don't recognise.

Thammarak will be having a drink. Its 6 o'clock. Hopefully he wont be in the state he was on coup night.

He's been sequestered to a "safe house" according to a post here about 83 posts ago. copied Jai Dee's time stamp on the post:

Posted on: Today, 2007-05-30 16:10:41

One that has lots of ice and soda water, no doubt.

Edited May 30, 2007 by sriracha john

[hammered]

A few observations:

A number of people on various media are now speculating TRT will go down. Lets wait and see.

Various sources on media are stating that 2 and 3 star hotels near or in Bangkok are full with no obvious reason.

Specualtion is rising that violence is inevitable. Lets hope this is wrong.

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

At least one small party leader thinks there will be an opportunity for them to break through and wi a seat or two.

This is an interesting day.

[goatfarmer]

Yawn...What's all the fuss about?

One thing is constant: T.I.T. (This Is Thailand)

Nobody will be held responsible for anything and everyone will forget about it. In a couple of months, it will be politics as usual again. T.I.T.

Seems like Thailand is following the Bush administration's example...

This cynical attitude suggests that there will never be political development in the country. Does Thailand deserve to be so doomed by an acronym?

[gust]

Not to take the suspense out of the whole thing, but actually all the evidence was already established by an (almost) independent body when Taksin was still in power. It was just not acted upon because the heads of the Election Commission were on the payroll of TRT.

[Plus]

It looks like the TRT as a party will survive as they lay the blame on exectutives only.

[hammered]

Not to take the suspense out of the whole thing, but actually all the evidence was already established by an (almost) independent body when Taksin was still in power. It was just not acted upon because the heads of the Election Commission were on the payroll of TRT.

That is spot on. However, will the level of evidence required to launch charges actually be enough to dissolcve the Thaksinistas

[jdinasia]

It looks like the TRT as a party will survive as they lay the blame on exectutives only.

Not so sure about that yet .....

My crystal ball is faulty today ...

[sriracha john]

Judges for the Tribunal were nominated from other courts, not handpicked by the junta. Just a few days ago HM The King himself gave them another speech on importance of being true to the law.

I don't think it's fair to accuse the court of bending justice towards the generals, more like the generals staged the coup to bend the country towards justice instead.

Additionally, these are all well-qualified judges who held top positions in the judiciary BEFORE the coup....

Particularly, the chairman and deputy chairman were the two top judges in the country.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/final/judge.html

[Phil Conners]

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

That would be good news for Thailand and for farangs here. Abhisit seems to be one of the few (if not the only) political leaders with a pro-western, pro-progress attitude. With Abhisit at the helm it could be a whole new future for Thailand.

[hammered]

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

That would be good news for Thailand and for farangs here. Abhisit seems to be one of the few (if not the only) political leaders with a pro-western, pro-progress attitude. With Abhisit at the helm it could be a whole new future for Thailand.

Agree with you but TRT have used a pretty extensive marketing campaign, using taxpayers money, to rubbish him as not a real Thai but a Brit or something. He would be better than Somkid or any of the other old losers like Banharn or Chavalit who is probably insane or actually dead.

[chevykanteve]

Thai Rak Thai escapes dissolution

BangkokPost.com

The Thai Rak Thai party was aquitted of charges that it cheated in the April, 2006 general election, and will not be dissolved, the Constitution Tribunal ruled

Judges said the party had "done a lot of good for Thailand" and also said that the barrier for dissolving a party was set high by the 1997 constitution and by human rights standards.

Thank God there's some sanity left in this country.

[pyrolover2000]

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

That would be good news for Thailand and for farangs here. Abhisit seems to be one of the few (if not the only) political leaders with a pro-western, pro-progress attitude. With Abhisit at the helm it could be a whole new future for Thailand.

Agree with you but TRT have used a pretty extensive marketing campaign, using taxpayers money, to rubbish him as not a real Thai but a Brit or something. He would be better than Somkid or any of the other old losers like Banharn or Chavalit who is probably insane or actually dead.

Loads of speculation here. What's going on in court? Will they have a verdict on the TRT today or, will they givr it a rest and continue tomorrow?

[roamer]

Thai Rak Thai escapes dissolution

BangkokPost.com

The Thai Rak Thai party was aquitted of charges that it cheated in the April, 2006 general election, and will not be dissolved, the Constitution Tribunal ruled

Judges said the party had "done a lot of good for Thailand" and also said that the barrier for dissolving a party was set high by the 1997 constitution and by human rights standards.

Thank God there's some sanity left in this country.

So now we have gone full circle and can make a new start......in the old way.

[kratindaeng]

Thaksin come home! Long Live Corruption!

Edited May 30, 2007 by kratindaeng

[A_Traveller]

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

That would be good news for Thailand and for farangs here. Abhisit seems to be one of the few (if not the only) political leaders with a pro-western, pro-progress attitude. With Abhisit at the helm it could be a whole new future for Thailand.

Agree with you but TRT have used a pretty extensive marketing campaign, using taxpayers money, to rubbish him as not a real Thai but a Brit or something. He would be better than Somkid or any of the other old losers like Banharn or Chavalit who is probably insane or actually dead.

Loads of speculation here. What's going on in court? Will they have a verdict on the TRT today or, will they givr it a rest and continue tomorrow?

Court is sitting now, the process is again charges, defence and then verdicts all read into the record.

Regards

[blaze]

The Nation editors are already annointing Abhisit as potentially the next leader of Thailand. They may be jumping the gun.

That would be good news for Thailand and for farangs here. Abhisit seems to be one of the few (if not the only) political leaders with a pro-western, pro-progress attitude. With Abhisit at the helm it could be a whole new future for Thailand.

Agree with you but TRT have used a pretty extensive marketing campaign, using taxpayers money, to rubbish him as not a real Thai but a Brit or something. He would be better than Somkid or any of the other old losers like Banharn or Chavalit who is probably insane or actually dead.

Loads of speculation here. What's going on in court? Will they have a verdict on the TRT today or, will they givr it a rest and continue tomorrow?

"He would be better than Somkid or any of the other old losers like Banharn or Chavalit who is probably insane or actually dead."

Only laugh I've had all day- and so true! A TV classic!

[A_Traveller]

The Constitution Tribunal acquits the Thai Rak Thai in collaborating with smaller parties and Election Commission officials to change information and party membership records so that candidates of small parties could be hired to run in the April election.

From The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30035599

Edit to add link since it's not on Nation Front Page now.

Edited May 30, 2007 by A_Traveller

[chevykanteve]

Indeed, come home.

[jdinasia]

They are still going

[chevykanteve]

And now we get this a few minutes ago, from the same newspaper. What on earth is happening??

Thai Rak Thai verdict pending

Following a court session lasting more than four hours, judges took a short break before reading their decisions in the Thai Rak Thai cases this evening.

[hammered]

The Constitution Tribunal acquits the Thai Rak Thai in collaborating with smaller parties and Election Commission officials to change information and party membership records so that candidates of small parties could be hired to run in the April election.

From The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30035599

Edit to add link since it's not on Nation Front Page now.

Yes I saw that before and it has gone. Weird.

Edited May 30, 2007 by hammered

[Plus]

The Constitution Tribunal acquits the Thai Rak Thai in collaborating with smaller parties and Election Commission officials to change information and party membership records so that candidates of small parties could be hired to run in the April election.

From The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30035599

Edit to add link since it's not on Nation Front Page now.

It's not on the breaking news page either, where did you find this link? Did they remove it from their menu?

[A_Traveller]

The Constitution Tribunal acquits the Thai Rak Thai in collaborating with smaller parties and Election Commission officials to change information and party membership records so that candidates of small parties could be hired to run in the April election.

From The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30035599

Edit to add link since it's not on Nation Front Page now.

It's not on the breaking news page either, where did you find this link? Did they remove it from their menu?

Looks like it, odd the time was/is on page 8:06 so maybe their clocks wrong or in a few minutes.....

Regards

/edit clarification //

Edited May 30, 2007 by A_Traveller

[Plus]

Their current latest story, Pojamarn and the kids are abroad is filed under 30035598, the above link is a story 30035599

[jdinasia]

The Constitution Tribunal acquits the Thai Rak Thai in collaborating with smaller parties and Election Commission officials to change information and party membership records so that candidates of small parties could be hired to run in the April election.

From The Nation

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30035599

Edit to add link since it's not on Nation Front Page now.

It's not on the breaking news page either, where did you find this link? Did they remove it from their menu?

Bangkokpost pulled theirs too .... may have been a mistake ... <one can hope>

[jdinasia]

story looks like it was pulled

[A_Traveller]

7.50pm : Thai Rak Thai's former MPs, executives and senior members signed an agreement to be and to work together if the party is dissolved.

A number of 289 TRT politicians signed the agreement as the Constitutional Tribunal read the verdict on the party. They said they will work and be together although the party is found guilty of violating the election laws and dissovled.

7:45 pm: Kuthep Saikrajang, a deputy spokesman of Thai Rak Thai, tells party supporters, who rallying in front of the party, to go home and wait for the ruling at home. Kuthep tells the supporters that the verdict reading could take time. The party will later inform them of the party's stand after the ruling.

From The Nation