In Bangkok
A CONSTITUTIONAL court is set to decide today whether Thai Prime Minister Somchai Somchai Wongsawat and others in his party committed electoral fraud - a move that might see him banned from politics and his party dissolved. Nirmal Ghosh reports live from the courthouse.
10.20 am: After an overnight switch of venue from the constitutional court in the heart of Bangkok to the Administrative Court in the suburb of Nonthaburi, the red shirts raced to the new venue and began filling up the carpark in front of the steps to the building.
Police watch as the protestors move on to the new venue.
Photo source: AP
By 10am, the crowd had swelled to over 1000 & increasingly volatile. They parked two trucks in the car park & used them 2 make speeches, shouting "anupong auk pei" (get out) and mobbed one of the judges angrily when he arrived.
There is a massive police presence today, unlike at the PAD protests armed with batons. Several 100 soldiers with shields & batons line the side streets. A squad of soldiers with M16s has suddenly appeared and made their way through the crowd to the courthouse also around 10am.
Boarding trucks to get to the new courthouse.
Photo source: AP
The crowd screamed at them, caught hold of the last one, roughed him up and threw him out. A lot of pent-up rage is evident & on verge of spilling over. The red shirts screamed abuse at the soldiers on the street opposite the court.
It's 10:30am now in Bangkok and the crowd has swelled to around 3,000 out in the streets.
Outside the courthouse.
Photo source: AP
10:45am: The red shirts have set up a PAD-style roadblock right outside the military base across road from court. Many armed with iron rods & two-by-fours. About 50 motorcycle taxi drivers have shown up and have parked in front of court gate - standing in a line with iron rods.
Taxis also park right across gate of military base. A monk - one of about 20 who have come to support the red shirts - sits in the middle of road facing the gate, with three women in red shading him with parasols.
12 noon: The mood has now settled a bit. The crowd in the car park is peaceful. But the red shirts have blocked both lanes & created a massive traffic backup.
The judges have finished hearing the closing arguments in the case against Chart Thai and are now hearing the Matchima case. There is talk that PPP will not turn up. Word is also that the verdicts will be handed down today.
Whether they give a verdict on PPP in absentia is the question. Groups of Red shirts are now busy improvising weapons on the street by breaking up planks and steel fences.
12:46pm: Disbelief, disappointment as dissolution handed down on PPP (People Power Party). Some people are boo-ing. The verdict is photocopied and distributed. One woman snatches it from another and crumples it, throws it on the ground & stamps on it. There is a sense of deflation in the crowd; they seem rudderless.
3:04pm: It's all over now. After an attempt to cut off the electricity to the courthouse with a long bamboo pole which produced a big explosion when it shorted the mains supply, the red shirts have dispersed and apparently returned to the square in front of City Hall.
I've returned to base via Government House where I bumped into PAD coordinator and spokesman Suriyasai Katasila an hour ago in the process of ''handing over'' Government House - to the Government. Gloomy police with bomb sniffer dogs were standing by to check out the premises - which are in shambles after the PAD's months-long occupation.
This is my last post here for the day.
Read Nirmal's full report in The Straits Times tomorrow.