Thai court ruling no solution to crisis

The Constitutional Court ruling nullifying last month's elections has broken the deadlock that left Thailand without a working parliament and led Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to resign, they said.

"But it's only a small step forward and we have a lot of obstacles remaining," said analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak from Chulalongkorn University.

New elections could be delayed if the Election Commissioners bowed to demands to resign after the court ruled that the April 2 polls were unfair and breached the constitution.

Selecting new commissioners quickly to organise fresh polls would be difficult as the new Senate tasked with the job has yet to take office after elections last month, Thitinan said.

Parliament has been unable to convene to form a new government because the polls failed to fill all seats in the lower house due to an opposition boycott, leaving Thailand in political limbo.

Thaksin had called those polls in hopes of ending months of mass street protests by demonstrators accusing him of corruption and abuse of power.

Instead, the elections plunged the country into a constitutional crisis after the opposition boycott and a major protest vote against Thaksin's rule.