Looking to stay in the big league

Constitution Tribunal judges would apply the spirit of the Council for Democratic Reform (CDR) when preparing their rulings on electoral fraud cases involving the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties, one of the judges said yesterday.

"In our final ruling, we will answer all the questions from the public. All the issues involved will be incorporated. We will take everything into account: the principles of law and political science, as well as the spirit of the Council for Democratic Reform," said the judge, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The CDR, which staged the Sept 19 coup last year, is now known as the Council for National Security.

The coup makers cited political interference into independent organisations as one of the four major causes for their overthrow of the Thaksin Shinawatra government. Before the coup, Election Commission members were sentenced to jail for their bias in favour of ruling politicians at the time.

Tribunal judges are required to prepare their individual judgements before voting on the final ruling.

The judge said the individual rulings would be kept secret.

That was why he doubted the credibility of a recent rumour that the nine judges had made decisions about the cases: 6-3 in favour of a Thai Rak Thai dissolution and 5-4 in favour of a Democrat dissolution.

Thai Rak Thai's defence lawyer Vichit Plangsrisakul reportedly "leaked" the results last week but he denied having made such a remark. The tribunal also rejected the report as groundless.

Another tribunal source said the judges had discussed several legal issues regarding the cases. "But we haven't voted yet," he said.

The source believed most of the judges had completed their individual judgements, but it was possible that changes could be made if they were convinced by the arguments of other judges on certain issues.

The judge said he believed the final joint rulings of the tribunal would be voted on before "the day of judgement" a week tomorrow.

He said debate on the cases was unlikely to put pressure on the judges or influence the final verdicts.

The Thai Rak Thai was accused of hiring smaller political parties to contest in the April 2006 election, which was boycotted by the three major opposition parties at the time, including the Democrats. The Democrats were accused of making false accusations against TRT.

Sathien Piriyapanpongsa,

Supon Thanukrit

The Nation