Red-shirt protest to call for freeze on charter judges' pay
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Red-shirt protest to call for freeze on charter judges' pay

A group of red-shirt protesters will rally at the Budget Bureau to ask it to freeze the salaries of the Constitution Court's nine judges.

Pongpisit Kongsena, or Lek Bandon, leader of a red-shirt group called Radio Broadcasters for Democracy, yesterday claimed the judges have misused their authority.

He said they have attempted to block moves to amend the constitution and are infringing on executive matters, causing problems for the government.

Mr Pongpisit's group had planned to rally at the Budget Bureau yesterday but postponed it to next week, saying they needed more time to compile documents to back up their petition.

The group was among 200 red shirts who gathered in front of the Constitution Court for a fourth day yesterday.

Another group of red shirts arrived at the National Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday to submit a 20,000-name petition asking it to remove the judges.

Mr Pongpisit said more red-shirt supporters from several provinces would join the protest at the court.

Deputy government spokeswoman Lt Sunisa Lertpakawat denied a claim by Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva that the government is behind the protest.

Noppadon Pattama, a legal adviser to ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, also rejected allegations by the Democrats and Suriyasai Katasila, a coordinator of the Green Politics group, that Thaksin had ordered the red shirts to ratchet up pressure on the judges.

The red shirts' impeachment campaign and protest against the judges came after the court decided on April 3 to accept for consideration a petition by Sen Somchai Sawaengkarn. The senator asked the court to rule on the legality of the move by 312 MPs and senators to amend Section 68 of constitution.

Section 68 allows people to complain directly with the court over acts deemed harmful to the constitutional monarchy. The amendment would require complaints to be made first with public prosecutors, an act viewed by Sen Somchai as depriving the public of its right to raise the issue with the court.

If found guilty by the court, Pheu Thai could end up sharing a similar fate as its previous incarnations _ Thai Rak Thai and the People Power Party _ which were dissolved by the court for electoral fraud with their executives banned from politics for five years.

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