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BANGKOK, Nov 28, 2008 (AFP) - Thailand's Constitutional Court will wrap up a case next week that could see the protest-hit ruling party and two of its coalition partners disbanded for fraud, a court spokesman said Friday.
The People Power Party (PPP) - whose coalition government is currently crippled by protesters who have seized Bangkok's two airports - is one of three parties that could be dissolved because of the electoral fraud cases.
Judges have asked leaders from PPP and its partners to present their final defence on Tuesday so they can wrap up the case, the spokesman said. Executives from the three parties have been convicted of fraud related to elections last December.
The constitution dictates that if a party executive is found guilty of such a crime, the whole party should be dissolved and the leaders banned from politics for five years.
"I am not sure whether judges will set a date for the verdict on that day or not - please don't speculate," the spokesman told reporters.
The PPP has already set up a shell party called Pheu Thai (For Thais). If the court dissolves the ruling outfit, members who are not banned from politics are expected to simply move to the new party and continue running the country.
It may, however, end the leadership of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, who would likely be banned from politics and have to hand over the reins.
He is currently beset by protesters who accuse him of running the country on behalf of his brother-in-law Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier ousted in a 2006 coup who is living in exile abroad to escape corruption charges.
Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party was disbanded for similar reasons soon after the coup, sending many former Thai Rak Thai members into the PPP.
Protesters have forced the closure of Bangkok's two airports this week as they upped their six-month campaign to topple the government. Somchai has refused a call by the army chief to hold new elections to end the turmoil.
A number of court decisions have already gone against the PPP.
In one of those decisions, the Constitutional Court found that Somchai's predecessor Samak Sundaravej had violated the charter by taking payments for television cooking shows, and ordered him to step down.
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