Ex-Thaksin party executives banned from Thai campaign

BANGKOK, (AFP) Thailand's Election Commission has banned former executives of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra's political party from joining campaigns for next month's elections, an official said Saturday.

Thais cast their ballots on December 23 in the first polls to be held since the military overthrew Thaksin's government in a bloodless coup in September 2006.

As electioneering kicked off, the Election Commission ruled late Friday that 111 executives with Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party were banned from taking part in the campaigning.

"All former Thai Rak Thai executives cannot appear with candidates or act as political consultants for candidates," commission chairman Apichart Sukhagganond told reporters.

While the junta insists the upcoming polls will restore democracy in the kingdom, analysts have questioned how free and fair the elections can be when about one-third of the country is still under martial law.

Thaksin's party, which stormed the polls in 2001 and 2005, was dissolved in May in a court ruling that also banned the 111 party executives, including Thaksin, from politics for five years.

Thaksin has lived in London since the coup, and says he will not return to Thailand until democracy is restored. He faces a raft of corruption charges brought by the junta, which has frozen his assets worth 1.9 billion dollars.

The former TRT executives also cannot be photographed with candidates or appear on campaign banners and posters, Apichart said.