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BANGKOK - THAILAND'S Constitutional Court yesterday removed another prime minister from office.
Because of voter fraud in last year's polls, the court ordered the disbanding of the ruling People Power Party and two allied parties, with their top leaders banned from politics for five years.
It was only in late September that then premier Samak Sundaravej was forced by the same court to quit after being found guilty of accepting money to host a TV cooking show.
Now Mr Somchai Wongsawat has been cast out.
In the short term, the political crisis that has entangled the country for so long will apparently loosen its grip.
The protesters who have been holding Bangkok's two airports agreed to leave today and will suspend political rallies.
Leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took turns to declare victory yesterday on a stage at Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
"All people can go home now. We are the victors. However, we will be ready to come back if the country wants us to," they told the cheering crowds.
But the airports cannot simply restart operations. The airport operator will decide today when flights can resume, but had earlier said the airports will stay closed till Dec 15.
Meanwhile, the airport seizures have stranded 350,000 passengers - three of whom were killed en route to alternative ways out of the country - and caused massive economic losses.
Ultimately, it is far from clear, as AFP writer Charlie Mc-Donald-Gibson argues in his analysis today, that anything will change. And that the PAD won't be back on the streets protesting against whoever succeeds Mr Somchai. -- AGENCIES
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