PPP dissolution decision delayed

The Election Commission's decision regarding the potential dissolution of the PPP has been delayed until 2nd September. The EC had been deliberating ever since one of the PPP's deputy leaders, Yongyuth Tiyaphairat, was convicted of fraud by the EC, a conviction later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Under Thai law, if an executive member of a political party is convicted of electoral fraud, the Supreme Court is entitled to dissolve the party in question. (That explains Samak's on-again-off-again scheme to change the constitution, of course.) This scenario was played out last year when Thaksin's TRT was dissolved by the Constitutional Tribunal established by the leaders of the 2006 coup. After TRT was dissolved, its MPs formed the PPP as a replacement. The PPP then won the 2007 election.

If, as expected, the EC's announcement on 2nd September goes against the PPP, the party will be reincarnated yet again. It's an open secret that a new Puea Thai Party has already been formed, ready to rise like a desperate phoenix from the PPP's ashes. Thaksin himself, the PPP's puppet-master, is now in exile in London; he returned to Thailand earlier this year, though he fled to England last week when it became clear that he could not defeat the various corruption charges filed against him.