Thailand's Constitutional Court dismissed on Monday an electoral funding case against the party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, in a move ensuring the government's survival but likely to anger its opponents. A panel of six judges dismissed the case against Abhisit's Democrat Party, saying the Election Commission did not "follow legal procedure" because it had failed to file the case within a required timeframe.
"The rest of the case can be dropped and there is no need to consider anything else," said a judge on the panel during an hour-long reading of the verdict. The acquittal of the case against conservative, pro-establishment party is likely to anger the Democrats' opponents in a "red shirt" opposition movement.
Protracted street protests by the opposition supporters ended in a bloody military crackdown in May but the court's ruling on Monday may not translate into an immediate regrouping on the streets. The verdict was the latest twist in a five-year political crisis studded with street protests, party dissolutions and military intervention.