BANGKOK — A Thai court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had violated the Constitution by appearing as the host on a television cooking show, forcing him to resign after just seven months in office.
The ruling brought a sudden and unexpected end, at least for the moment, to Mr. Samak’s confrontation with thousands of protesters who have occupied the grounds of his office for two weeks, demanding his resignation.
It was not clear how the protesters would react to the court ruling, but they have added conditions for an end to their protest and have declared they are seeking an overhaul of the entire Thai political system.
Mr. Samak’s party said it would renominate him to resume his post. "I insist that our party leader will be the prime minister," said Wittaya Buranasiri, a party official.
But that was not a certainty, and his party was already reported to be maneuvering to find a replacement for him. The entire cabinet is required to resign along with him, but will remain as a caretaker government for 30 days.
A hardened and sharp-tongued politician, Mr. Samak, 73, has shown a folksy side on his televised cooking show _ "Tasting and Complaining" _ stirring up personal recipes and sounding off on topics that catch his interest.
"I have done nothing wrong," the prime minister told the Constitutional Court on Monday. "I was hired to appear on the program and got paid from time to time. I was not an employee of the company."
He said, "I did it because I liked doing it."
Mr. Samak made just a few appearances on the show after becoming prime minister seven months ago, but that was enough for a group of opposition senators, who brought his case to the Counter-Corruption Commission, which forwarded it to the Constitutional Court. The accusation against Mr. Samak was that he had violated a constitutional prohibition against private employment while in office.
The charge of cooking against the rules is a curious one, given the allegations of gigantic corruption that surround other government figures.
The courts in Thailand have become an active part of the political scene, and have charged former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in several corruption cases.
Mr. Thaksin fled to London last month to avoid appearing in court and has applied for political asylum.
Mr. Samak also faces three charges of corruption that have not yet reached the courts and he is appealing a three-year prison sentence for defamation of Bangkok’s deputy governor, Samart Rapholasit.
Conviction in any of these cases would also force him to step down.
In addition, another independent agency, the Election Commission, ruled last week that Mr. Samak’s party, the People Power Party, had committed electoral fraud in an election last December and should be dissolved. That case is also expected to be heard by the Constitutional Court.
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