[JURIST] Approximately a thousand demonstrators gathered in Bangkok Thursday to protest a Wednesday order [JURIST report] by the Constitutional Court [official website, in Thai] of Thailand banning former Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra [BBC profile] and 110 other Thai Rak Thai (TRT) [party website] officials from holding political offices for five years. The court, which found the TRT guilty of electoral fraud [JURIST report] during last year's annulled elections, also ordered the dissolution of the TRT. TRT leader Chaturon Chaisaeng said that party members would recreate the TRT by registering a "new" party under the same name.

TRT was put on trial [JURIST report] in January for allegedly misusing the independent election commission and illegally paying smaller parties to run candidates against it to satisfy minimum vote requirements. AP has more.