BANGKOK–Before thousands of anti-government demonstrators could finish packing their belongings today after occupying the airport for a week, their leader was warning of the possibility of more crippling protests.
Sondhi Limthongkul, the media mogul who heads the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, warned he's ready to call demonstrators back to the streets regardless of the resignation of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat following a court order to dissolve his governing party.
"The PAD will return if another proxy government is formed or anyone tries to amend the constitution, or the law, to whitewash some politicians or to subdue the monarch's authority," Sondhi told supporters today as they lifted their siege of the capital's two airports.
An estimated 300,000 travellers – hundreds of them Canadian – have been stranded for a week in Bangkok.
The resignation of Somchai came after Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolved the top three parties in the country's governing coalition, accusing them of electoral fraud. Somchai and a number of his associates were also barred from politics for five years.
But the three parties were quickly reconstituted under different guises and leaders met today to choose a caretaker prime minister before reconvening Parliament.
Allies of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra still dominate parliament and are expected to elect a successor from among their number Monday – the third prime minister in as many months.
Somchai, his administration paralyzed, has been forced to govern from the northern city of Chiang Mai since last Wednesday. He accepted the ruling with equanimity.
"It is not a problem. I was not working for myself. Now I will be a full-time citizen," he told reporters in Chiang Mai.
Yesterday's ruling is expected to widen the dangerous rift in Thai society that many fear could lead to more violence between pro- and anti-government groups.
Somchai's People's Power party, the Machima Thipatai party and the Chart Thai party were found guilty of committing fraud in the December 2007 elections that brought the coalition to power.
"Dishonest political parties undermine Thailand's democratic system," said court president Chat Chalavorn.
The ruling sends Somchai and 59 executives of the three parties into political exile and bars them from politics for five years. Of the 59, 24 are legislators who will also have to resign their parliamentary seats.
The protesters – who seek to eliminate the one-person, one-vote system – want to purge the nation of the influence of former prime minister Thaksin, whom they accuse of massive corruption and seeking to undermine revered constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was ousted by a September 2006 military coup.
Los Angeles Times, with files from AP
