Thailand court scraps election results, extending political gridlock

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http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-thailand-court-election-protest-20140321,0,7807977.story



An antigovernment activist in Bangkok, Thailand, watches the crowd as protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban speaks to supporters after the nation's constitutional court nullified the results of a Feb. 2 election. Protesters, who have tried for four months to force Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra out of office, were cheered by the court action, which Yingluck's party denounced as biased.

Thailand court scraps election results, extending political gridlock
By Carol J. Williams
March 21, 2014, 2:27 p.m.

Thailand's constitutional court Friday nullified the Feb. 2 election won by supporters of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra amid an opposition boycott, prolonging the country's 4-month-old political crisis and threatening a deeper toll on its tourism-dependent economy.

Opposition supporters celebrated the 6-3 court ruling that said the vote was invalid because not all polls were open to receive voters on the same day. Antigovernment protesters had blocked registration in 28 constituencies, forcing election workers to delay voting at the affected polls.

Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party rejected the ruling and vowed to take legal action against the protest leaders who obstructed the work of election commissioners, the government-run National News Bureau of Thailand reported.

The high court ordered that a new election be set but gave no time frame, leaving the country in the same political gridlock that has resulted from an opposition insisting on political reforms before the next election and the governing party wanting a new parliamentary mandate first.