Quick Clarification About Thai Politics

[howeird]

Most of the news agencies in the US don't understand what just happened in Thai politics today, so I'll explain.

The constitutional court, which presides over election fraud, declared that all three political parties committed fraud in the last election, disbanded them, and banned their leaders from politics for three years. The max sentence is 5 years, but they didn't get the max.

The court did not say when this would take effect. The court did not say when they would say.

So the Thai parliament is disbanded, and new elections must be held, but nobody knows when, yet.

Meanwhile, the King's birthday is the 5th, which is the 4th USA time, and he will make his usual birthday speech. He may also make a less than usual speech about what the state of the government ought to be. When the king speaks, everyone listens, and most obey.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I was getting "breaking news" and live feeds (midnight CA time) with reporter standups in Bangkok. Probably while things were still being translated. That is problematic when dealing with Sacramento let alone Bangkok.

And it's already off the front pages (10am) because S. Palin said something.

[howeird]

Be nice. It was wiped off the front page by Mumbai. There was a chilling interview on BBC of a couple who escaped the Taj Hotel, got to the airport and found out their scheduled flight to Bangkok was canceled.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I was nice - and serious. Mumbai does dominate the news, of course, but they're covering that, the stock market, what Obama says, and Palin. Really - she said something and they kept playing it between Mumbai and Wall Street. It was weird.

[howeird]

From Wall Street to Main Street via Taj Road...

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was rather perplexed about what-all was going on. I have another friend (friends, actually, as they are a married couple) who are trying to get to Bangkok. I don't know if they managed it or not.

[howeird]

The airport situation in Bangkok is perfectly safe for the tourists. The protesters are pro-democracy, love Americans, and took over the airport to be there when the corrupt Prime Minister was scheduled to return from an economic summit in Peru. He re-routed to Chiang Mai, but the protesters had too much inertia to disband.

[scendan.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. As it turns out, I just saw a post from said friend. She and her wife are in Bangkok safe and sound. :) Thank you.

And thank you for posting your adventures. :)