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Thai parliament opts for Thaksin ally Samak as PM

Thai Prime Minster Samak Sundaravej walks past journalists after being elected at Parliament House in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Thailand's parliament chose a pugnacious ally of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra as the new prime minister yesterday, taking a key step toward restoring democracy that was left in tatters following the 2006 coup.

Samak Sundaravej, 72-year-old head of the People's Power Party, easily beat the Democrat Party candidate Abhisit Vejjajiva by 310 votes to 163. His six-party coalition will meet tomorrow to discuss the rest of the Cabinet lineup -- a process that could take two weeks.

The selection of a candidate so closely linked to Thaksin, however, risks further dividing a country that has struggled to regain its footing and economic clout since the coup.

"It is likely to be a turbulent premiership ahead," Panithan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said of Samak's tenure.

"For many people, he doesn't have legitimacy to rule, given pending legal cases against him," Panithan said. "He is also seen as a nominee of Thaksin who is still very much prominent in Thai politics. Moreover, he has enemies on all sides because of his abrasive and divisive personality."

In the end, Samak benefited from his very public support of Thaksin. With a parliament dominated by pro-Thaksin lawmakers, Samak gambled correctly they would overlook his character flaws and be swayed by his promises to defend Thaksin should he return from self-imposed exile in May to face corruption charges.

"The appointment of Samak is mutually expedient for both Thaksin and himself," said Thitinan Pongsidhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

On the streets of Bangkok, some residents questioned the staying power of a politician facing so many legal problems and a record of making controversial statements.

Samak has appealed a two-year sentence for defaming a deputy Bangkok governor and is the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation stemming from the purchase of Austrian fire trucks and a waste management contract when he was Bangkok governor from 2001 to 2004.

"I don't like him. I don't like his history," said Thapanik Somburanakiat, 45, a drinks vendor. "The way he speaks, plus the scandals ... I don't want foreigners to look at Thailand in a bad way."

But others said they felt he was the right man for the job, someone who was willing to take on vested interests like the military and say what others were afraid to utter.

Bangkok-born and of Chinese descent, Samak began his own political career in 1968 when he joined the Democrat Party. With Bangkok as his power base, he has since held eight Cabinet posts and served more than 20 years as a member of parliament.

Early on, Samak established his trademarks -- a right wing ideology, a common touch which endeared him to the masses and penchant for speaking his mind.

He has called the press a hindrance to development and it was his vitriolic rhetoric on radio and at rallies which helped stoke anti-communist sentiment in 1976. That prompted mobs to storm a Bangkok university, killing and burning alive scores of leftist student activists.
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