Thai court suspends third round of voting

The ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court came just hours after a meeting of the chief justices of Thailand's three most powerful courts, who had gathered to consider scrapping the April 2 elections.

"The court halted the by-elections in 14 constituencies in nine provinces on April 29 because the election has been unconstitutionally organized," the court said in its verdict.

The ruling said that voting booths had been improperly arranged in a way that compromised the secrecy of the ballot.

Outgoing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's party won 56 percent of the vote in the snap elections, which he called in hopes of ending two months of street protests against his rule.

But the opposition boycotted the polls, undermining Thaksin's victory with a strong protest vote. He announced two days later that he would not become prime minister in the new government.

The political crisis continued, however, as the boycott left 40 of parliament's 500 seats empty, and a new round of voting last weekend failed to fill them.

A third round had been scheduled for Saturday to fill the remaining 14 seats, but the court put those polls on hold.

The decision came in response to complaints filed by individuals who said that other people would be able to see how they marked their ballots.

Voting booths had been arranged in the same way throughout the whole electoral process. The court's ruling therefore appeared to cast doubt on the validity of the original balloting as well.

The ruling did not address the question of whether parliament would be able to open. Thai law requires all 500 seats to be filled before parliament can convene, which is supposed to happen by May 2.