May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Thailand's constitutional court cleared the Democrat Party, the country's oldest, of breaking election laws last year.
The nine-judge tribunal, appointed by the military junta that ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September, said today that the Democrat Party can continue to exist. Its leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was also absolved of any wrongdoing.
The judges are expected to rule later today on whether to disband the former ruling party Thai Rak Thai and ban its key members from politics for offences in the same April 2006 election.
Thailand's junta deployed more than 10,000 soldiers and police in Bangkok ahead of today's verdicts, which Democrat and Thai Rak Thai leaders pledged to respect. King Bhumibol Adulyadej warned last week that any judgment ``will damage the country'' and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said this morning he would order emergency rule if there were violent protests.
While a number of schools in Bangkok were closed on security concerns today, there were no signs of any large protests in the city, with less than 200 people gathered quietly behind police barriers across the road from the court.
Surayud told Thai television before the verdict, which took more than three hours, that the situation is calm throughout the country.
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