Thai court disbands ruling party

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BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters): Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat was banned from politics for five years and his party disbanded on Tuesday, plunging the country deeper into chaos and raising fears of a violent backlash by government supporters.
Party members vowed to "move on" and vote for a new prime minister on December 8, setting the stage for another flashpoint in Thailand's three-year old political crisis.
First deputy prime minister Chavarat Charnvirakul would take over as interim prime minister, a government spokesman said.

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Unexpectedly, anti-government protesters who had blockaded Bangkok's two airports for the past week said hours after the Constitutional Court's rulings that they would end all their rallies on Wednesday.
People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) leader Sondhi Limthongkul told a news conference the protesters would start pulling out of Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports on Wednesday.
The PAD had refused to negotiate until Somchai steps down. They accuse him of being a puppet of his brother-in-law, ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
On Monday, the PAD began reinforcing their airport blockades with thousands of supporters moving from Government House, ending a three-month occupation of the prime minister's offices.
The court also disbanded two other parties in Somchai's six-party coalition for vote fraud in the 2007 general election and barred their leaders from politics for five years.
The rulings seemed to raise the risk of clashes between red-shirted government allies, who rallied outside the court as the verdicts were read, and thousands of yellow-shirted PAD protesters who have blockaded Bangkok's airports in a "final battle" to oust Somchai.
Hours before the court decisions, one person was killed and 22 wounded after a grenade was fired at protesters besieging the domestic Don Muang airport.