Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is due in court today as his party tries to fend off a possible ban that threatens to further shake the kingdom’s fractured political landscape.
Abhisit, alongside other executives, faces a five-year ban from politics and the ruling Democrat Party could be dissolved if it is found guilty of corruption by the Constitutional Court.
He is set to be a witness for the defense in what could be the final hearing before judges rule on the case, which centers on claims of misuse of a 29 million baht (US$900,000) state grant in 2005.
“We are satisfied with the facts we have presented to the court and confident our party has done nothing wrong,” Democrat lawyer Virat Kalayasiri said.
The party faces accusations that it paid 23 million baht to advertising firms, despite only having permission to spend 19 million on billboard marketing.
Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) in April called for the party to be abolished over the claims as well as a separate case alleging an undeclared political donation. The move coincided with a tense standoff between troops and “Red Shirts,” which descended into violence that left more than 90 people dead and almost 1,900 injured during two months of unrest.
The Democrats, Thailand’s oldest party, came to power two years ago after court decisions ousted allies of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who had been toppled in a 2006 coup.
Author and former diplomat Pavin Chachavalpongpun said he doesn’t think the party will be disbanded: “What is the point of staging a military coup in the first place when they know the party they rely on will have to be dissolved?”
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