2008 Thai political crisis
The sieges ended in December when the Constitutional Court dissolved the PPP and banned its executive board from political office after finding it guilty of election fraud.
In the April 2009 protest, its aims were the immediate resignation of the prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and members of the privy council, Prem Tinsulanonda and Surayud Chulanont, as well as new elections.
Thaksin's grassroots economic policies helped reduce poverty and provided universal health care, making him hugely popular in rural Thailand.
[1][2][3] Media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul had been a staunch supporter of Thaksin until major losses at state-owned Krung Thai Bank caused CEO Viroj Nualkhair to be fired.
The junta canceled the elections, abrogated the Constitution, dissolved Parliament, banned protests and all political activities, suppressed and censored the media, declared martial law, and arrested Cabinet members.
Tensions rose between Thailand and Cambodia as the PAD called for Thai investors to withdraw from Cambodia, the closure of all 40 Thai-Cambodian border checkpoints, a ban on all flights from Thailand to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, the construction of a naval base at Koh Kut near the border, and the abolition of the committee which oversees demarcation of overlapping sea areas and the unilateral declaration of a Thai marine map.
Tensions escalated to crisis when on Tuesday 26 August the protesters stormed and occupied the grounds of the Government House, displacing the prime minister from his offices.
[16] Transport infrastructure was disrupted beginning 29 August, with state railway workers union, the PAD's alliance, was on strike partially disabling train services.
The People Power Party decided to renominate Samak as Premier (he had stopped hosting the TV shows earlier that year and thus was no longer an employee).
[30] People Power Party's deputy spokesman Kuthep Suthin Klangsang, on 12 September 2008, announced that: "Samak has accepted his nomination for prime minister.
Meanwhile, Thailand's army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda said he backed the creation of a unity government that would include all the country's parties, and he also asked for the lifting of a state of emergency that Samak imposed on 2 September.
On 4 and 5 October 2008, respectively, Chamlong Srimuang and rally organizer, Chaiwat Sinsuwongse, of People's Alliance for Democracy, were detained by the Thai police on charges of insurrection, conspiracy, illegal assembly, and refusing orders to disperse (treason) against each of them and eight other protest leaders.
Armed with batons, PAD forces surrounded Parliament and used razor wire barricades to prevent the legislature from meeting to hear Samak's replacement, Somchai Wongsawat, formally announce his policies.
[43] One additional PAD leader was killed, claimed by the police, when the bomb in his car went off in front of the headquarters of the Chart Thai Party, a member of the government coalition.
Pornthip Rojanasunand, Director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, claimed that the loss of one particular PAD member's leg could not have been the result of tear gas usage, but came from a more powerful explosion.
[48] After viewing photographs of Angkhana Radappanyawut's injuries, Pornthip Rojanasunand suggested unequivocally that the death was caused by the explosion of a tear gas canister.
The Queen was accompanied by her youngest daughter, Princess Chulabhorn, Army Chief Anupong Paochinda, Opposition Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, and many high-ranked officials, but there were no signs of any police personnel.
[55] Since the Queen's appearance was without precedent in modern times, many academicians and media deemed them to be "unusual" and perhaps an "explicit royal backing to a five-month street campaign to oust the elected government".
The UDD's and Thaksin's harsh attack on Prem Tinsulanonda, head of royal Privy Council and close advisor of the king, has been seen as a contradiction of Thai tradition and a hidden attempt to make a regime change.
PAD members armed with clubs, iron bars and knives, with some wearing black balaclavas,[57] then entered the terminal, much to the surprise of the thousands of travellers inside.
At one checkpoint, police found 15 home-made guns, an axe, and other weapons in a Dharma Army six-wheel truck taking 20 protesters to Suvarnabhumi airport.
"[78] The governments of China, France, New Zealand, Singapore, Britain, the United States, Australia, and Japan warned their citizens to avoid Thailand and steer clear of protesters at the airport.
"[82][83] On the night of 26 November 2008, the services at the Don Mueang Airport were stopped after the People's Alliance for Democracy seized control of the domestic passenger terminal.
[86] In December 2008, the Constitutional Court was scheduled to rule on whether or not to dissolve the PPP, Chart Thai, and Matchima Thippatai parties on electoral fraud charges.
[89] Prior to the delivery of decision, judge Chat Chonlaworn, President of the nine-judge panel, remarked that:[90] The Court's trials at this time are independent, and not interfered or compelled by any political influences.
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand, Buddhist Era 2550 (2007) contains the spirits to justify the elections, especially, through providing the provisions to prevent electoral fraud, such as vote buying.
It also noted that the wife of one of the judges was an active PAD member, and said that these and other irregularities would likely lead the Thai people to call the integrity of the court into question and see the ruling as an alternative means of accomplishing a coup.
[93] On 6 December 2008, the opposition Democrat Party announced it had garnered sufficient support from former coalition partners of PPP and their splinters to be able to form a government,[94][95] while For Thais claimed the same, adding that it had already been joined by more than a third of MPs.
[98] Army commander and co-leader of the 2006 coup, General Anupong Paochinda, was widely reported to have coerced PPP MPs to defect to the Democrat Party.
[102] The PAD seizure of Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports is estimated to have cost the Thai economy at least three billion Baht (approximately US$100 million) a day in lost shipment value and opportunities.
