By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years and his party disbanded on Tuesday, plunging the country deeper into chaos and raising fears of a violent backlash by government supporters.
Party members vowed to "move on" and vote for a new prime minister on December 8, setting the stage for another flashpoint in Thailand's three-year old political crisis.
First deputy prime minister Chavarat Charnvirakul would take over as interim prime minister, a government spokesman said.
Unexpectedly, anti-government protesters who had blockaded Bangkok's two airports for the past week said hours after the Constitutional Court's rulings that they would end all their rallies on Wednesday.
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul told a news conference the protesters would start pulling out of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports at 10 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday.
The PAD had refused to negotiate until Somchai steps down. They accuse him of being a puppet of his brother-in-law, ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
On Monday, the PAD began reinforcing their airport blockades with thousands of supporters moving from Government House, ending a three-month occupation of the prime minister's offices.
The court also disbanded two other parties in Somchai's six-party coalition for vote fraud in the 2007 general election and barred their leaders from politics for five years.
The rulings seemed to raise the risk of clashes between red-shirted government allies, who rallied outside the court as the verdicts were read, and thousands of yellow-shirted PAD protesters who have blockaded Bangkok's airports in a "final battle" to oust Somchai.
Hours before the court decisions, one person was killed and 22 wounded after a grenade was fired at protesters besieging the domestic Don Muang airport.
Thailand's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has intervened in previous political crises during his six decades on the throne, made no mention of the country's troubles during a short speech at a Trooping the Colour military parade in Bangkok.
The annual ceremony, in which the king speaks about the need for military probity, was a picture of tradition and serenity in marked contrast to the chaos elsewhere in Bangkok.
STRANDED TOURISTS
Around 250,000 foreign tourists have been stranded by the week-long sit-ins at Don Muang and the bigger Suvarnabhumi international airport, which officials said will stay closed until December 15, eating into the key Christmas holiday season.
"The rally has caused massive damage to the country. We will try to open the airport as soon as possible," said Serirat Prasutanond, acting head of Airports of Thailand, before the surprise PAD announcement.
There was some good news for the air cargo industry which ground to a halt during the blockades, costing Thailand hundreds of millions of dollars.
A cargo flight bound for Kuala Lumpur left Suvarnabhumi on Tuesday, a welcome sight for a tourist- and export-dependent economy already suffering from the global financial crisis.
A senior airport official earlier said cargo flights could resume as soon as shippers and airlines were ready.
Finance Minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech told Reuters on Monday the economy might be flat next year, or grow by just 1-2 percent, after earlier growth forecasts of between 4-5 percent.
The travel chaos worried neighbours due to attend a regional summit in Thailand in two weeks, prompting the government to postpone the meeting until March 2009, a spokesman said.
The Thai baht edged up against the dollar and the stock market rose on optimism that political unrest might subside after the ruling, but shares soon fell back again.
"It's positive short-term as the government term has ended and the PAD may stop its protest," said Nuchjarin Panarode, an economist at Capital Nomura Securities.
"But in the longer term, there is still uncertainty as we need to wait for a new government and see its policies."
NEW PARLIAMENTARY VOTE
All six parties in the coalition government vowed to stick together and seek a parliamentary vote for a new prime minister on December 8, setting the stage for another potentially violent confrontation in the country's three-year-old political crisis.
Lawmakers who escaped the political ban would move to new "shell" parties to form another ruling coalition, a former minister said.
"The verdict comes as no surprise to all of us," said Jakrapob Penkair, a close associate of Thaksin, who was removed in a bloodless 2006 coup and is now in exile.
"But our members are determined to move on and we will form a government again out of the majority that we believe we still have," he told Reuters.
Only a handful of PAD members remained at Government House, where sandbag bunkers and car tyres stacked two metres (six feet) high stood around makeshift tarpaulin tents.
Carefully manicured lawns and gardens were hidden by a sea of wooden pallets and cardboard sleeping mats.
PAD supporters left with no hint of remorse or regret.
"We need a new, clean government. We don't want corruption," said Tae Saekuay, a toothless, hunchbacked 67-year-old as he carried a plastic sack of clothes and bedding through the mess. he said.
($1=35.46 Baht)
(Additional reporting by Bangkok bureau; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by David Fox and Bill Tarrant)
