<div> <div>Two major political parties have challenged the junta’s new regulation which handicaps old parties amid criticism that the military is manipulating the election laws for the benefit of new parties in the next general election scheduled in November 2018.&nbsp;&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 27 December 2017, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana, a member of the Pheu Thai Party legal team, <a href="https://prachatai.com/journal/2017/12/74741">submitted a petition</a> to the Constitution Court asking it to rule whether the junta’s endorsement of Head of the National Council for Peace and Order </div></div>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai Election Commissioner has confirmed the junta can legally dissolve parliament to resolve gridlock during the process of selecting a new Prime Minister, but questions whether such drastic measures would be worth it.</p>

<p>The Thai military have intimidated an environmental activist who is calling for the nullification of the result of the referendum on the junta-backed draft charter, saying the referendum was unfair. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Srisuwan Janya, Secretary-General of a political group called the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution (APTC), posted a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/thaisgwa/posts/1043771222339005">message on his FB account&nbsp;</a>at 9:19 am on Tuesday, 9 August 2016, reporting that several soldiers in uniform again visited his house in Bangkok.</p>

<p>Well-known pro-democracy activists and an academic have concluded that in addition to reforming its military, Thailand needs to reform its judicial institutions as well to get out of the endless cycle of coups d’état.</p> <p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Resistantcitizen/posts/1024747320901744">Resistant Citizen</a>, an anti-junta activist group, on Monday, 22 February 2016, organised a well-attended public seminar on Judicial Institutions under Special Circumstances at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok.</p>

<p>Prosecutors have indicted eight anti-election protesters for barricading Bangkok’s election venues during advanced voting in the election in early 2014.</p> <p>At the Criminal Court on Ratchadaphisek Road, Bangkok, at 11 am on Monday, 28 September 2015, prosecutors indicted Tinnakorn Plodpai, 35, one of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), an anti-election mob, for barricading the election venue in Bang Kapi District of Bangkok on 26 January 2014.</p>

<div>Thailand last week was stunned by the Constitutional Court’s <a href="http://prachatai.com/english/node/3954">ruling </a>to remove Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and some cabinet members from their caretaker positions. </div>

<p>Friends of Thai Democracy are becoming increasingly anxious as the search for its whereabouts or any trace of its remains now enters its third month.</p>

<p>On February 18, the world that watches the BBC saw a grenade thrown at police at Phan Fa bridge which a police officer unsuccessfully (but ‘heretically’, according to a PDRC tweet and I hope that’s just a blooper and he meant ‘heroically’) tried to kick away.</p> <p></p>

<p>The Constitutional Court of Thailand has recently adjudicated on 2 cases concerning alleged attempts to overthrow the country’s democratic system which is covered in Article 68 of the Constitution. In Case No. 15-18/2556, the Court stated that changing the senate from being half-appointed and half-elected to being fully elected is an attempt to overthrow the democratic system. And in the latest case, the Court rejected the amendment of Article 190 of the Constitution for the same reason.</p>

<p>Thailand may be heading to its first major constitutional crisis in history.</p> <p>Thai Constitution Court has performed an interesting exercise in semantics with one of the most basic words: the word &ldquo;and.&rdquo; Not that verbal gymnastics is foreign in Thai politics but this case is unusual as it happens in the judiciary, and the ramifications may be explosive and quite significant in the development of Thailand&rsquo;s political system.</p>

<p>On 18 May, a bail request by Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was denied yet again and the Constitutional Court dismissed his petition to seek its ruling on the constitutionality of Section 112 of the Criminal Code, or the l&egrave;se majest&eacute; law.</p>

<p>Prachatai columnist Bai Tong Hang has searched the website of the Constitutional Court for its official verdict on the Democrat Party dissolution case which the court dismissed in early December last year, but has found nothing.</p>