Mixed feelings over verdict

Though hundreds of red shirts were jubilant after the Consti-tution Court ruled that there were no grounds to dissolve the Pheu Thai Party, their leaders slammed the court for saying it had the mandate to continue monitoring the amendments.

Red-shirt leaders also vowed to continue supporting Pheu Thai's moves write a new charter through the Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA).

"This is an infringement of the power of the legislative branch. Their only job was to dismiss the case," Thida Thawornseth, head of the Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship, said.

She and other red-shirt leaders vowed to continue pushing for a new charter to be drafted, citing the platform Pheu Thai Party took when it ran for general elections last year. They also warned that the battle was far from over because the court and its supporters were trying to stop the red shirts and the Parliament from drafting a new charter to replace the current one that was written by the junta.

"Things won't stop here," red-shirt leader Jatuporn Promphan said minutes after the verdict was announced, adding that some people had a hidden agenda for trying to stop a new charter from being written.

Meanwhile, Thida added that nowhere was it written in the current charter that the total rewriting of the Constitution was forbidden, but said it was the "amataya" or the bureaucratic elite who did not want the junta-sponsored charter changed. "The truth is naked, right there before all Thais," she said.

Jatuporn added that he was not afraid of a referendum being held, adding that he did not know where Thai politics would stand in three months from now and holding a referendum would take about three months anyway.