Thai PM banned from politics as court disbands ruling party

Finance Minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech told Reuters yesterday the economy might be flat next year, or grow by just 1-2 per cent, after earlier growth forecasts of between 4-5 per cent.

The travel chaos worried neighbours due to attend a regional summit in Thailand in two weeks, prompting the government to postpone the meeting until March 2009, a spokesman said.

The Thai baht edged up against the dollar and the stock market rose on optimism that political unrest might subside after the ruling, but shares soon fell back again.

All six parties in the coalition government vowed to stick together and seek a parliamentary vote for a new prime minister on December 8, setting the stage for another potentially violent confrontation in the country’s three-year-old political crisis.

Lawmakers who escaped the political ban would move to new “shell” parties to form another ruling coalition, a former minister said.

“The verdict comes as no surprise to all of us,” said Jakrapob Penkair, a close associate of Mr Thaksin, who was removed in a bloodless 2006 coup and is now in exile.

“But our members are determined to move on and we will form a government again out of the majority that we believe we still have,” he told Reuters.

Such talk is likely to harden the Pad’s resolve, a day after they began reinforcing their airport blockades with thousands of supporters from Government House, ending a three-month occupation of the prime minister’s offices.

Only a handful of Pad members remained at Government House today, as a crane removed the shells of six buses used to barricade surrounding roads.

Bunkers of sandbags and car tyres stacked two metres (six feet) high were everywhere, beside lines of makeshift tarpaulin tents. The carefully manicured lawns and gardens were invisible beneath a sea of wooden pallets and cardboard sleeping mats.

Pad supporters left with no hint of remorse or regret. (Reuters)