BANGKOK: Hundreds of police are expected to surround Thailand's Constitutional
Court on Friday as the country braces for a crunch ruling that threatens to rip
open the kingdom's bitter political divisions.
The court is set to rule on
whether plans by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's party to amend the
constitution - drawn up under the military junta that deposed her divisive
brother Thaksin - are legal.
A verdict against the ruling
party could lead to its dissolution, risking fresh conflict in a nation that
has been racked by bloody street rallies since huge protests helped topple
Thaksin from power in 2006.
The opposition Democrats, which
were swept out of power in a landslide election win for Yingluck last year, claim
that the efforts to amend the constitution signal a threat to the
deeply-revered monarchy.
Yingluck - who would not
necessarily be removed from power even if her party is dissolved - called for
calm on the eve of the decision.
"I ask for cooperation from
all sides to abide by the law and not to use violence," she told reporters
on Thursday.
A small anti-Thaksin rally is
expected in front of the court on Friday, but rival "Red Shirts" -
mainly rural, working class supporters of the fugitive former premier - are not
expected on the streets before the verdict.
Police said 13 companies - nearly
2,000 officers - would be deployed on Friday at the court, with Special Branch
and Bangkok Metropolitan police assigned to provide security for the judges.
Two pro-Thaksin premiers were
forced from office in 2008 in judicial rulings, making way for the Democrats,
who are backed by the military and Bangkok elite, to take power in a
parliamentary vote.
Yingluck's Puea Thai party swept
to power last year on a wave of Thaksin support following deadly 2010 Red Shirt
street protests, promising to amend the constitution that was drawn up in 2007.
Observers said the court could
decide to throw out the complaint, to rule against the party - which denies any
intent to undermine the monarchy - or to find a compromise agreement that would
limit the extent of future revisions to the constitution.
Thailand expert Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said Thai people were
tired of the "systematic effort to undermine and subvert democratic
institutions" in recent years.
"There will be a severe
backlash if we see yet another repeat of the usurpation of electoral rule and
this time the court is in a much weaker position," he said.
"People who tread the middle
ground are uneasy about this effort and even the people on the establishment
side, they are queasy in their conscience about the validity of this case,
though they see it as the end justifying the means."
- AFP/de
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