Thailand’s parliament could vote next week for a new prime minister, a parliamentary official said yesterday, as both the main party in the outgoing government and the main opposition party claimed they had enough votes to win.
“After the king has approved the request to open a special parliamentary session, the House Speaker is likely to set a date next week for the vote for prime minister,” Pitoon Poomhiran, secretary-general of the lower house, told reporters.
He said earlier he had already submitted the request to King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
A vote is needed because Somchai Wongsawat was forced to step down as prime minister last week when his party and two others in the ruling coalition were disbanded by the courts for electoral fraud stemming from general elections a year ago.
Somchai and several ministers have been banned from politics for five years but other lawmakers have simply transferred to new “shell” parties.
The opposition Democrat Party called on Monday for an urgent parliamentary session to elect a new prime minister, claiming it had won over enough lawmakers from other parties to form a coalition government.
Four small partners in the previous six-party coalition government reiterated yesterday they would vote for Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as prime minister.
Most of the People Power Party old coalition partners have said they would now join the main opposition Democrat Party and vote for the Oxford-educated leader Abhisit to be prime minister.
“In the petition for the extraordinary session already to put to the office of the King’s private secretary, we asked for the session to open from Dec. 15 onward,” the office of the secretary general of the lower house said.
“Each party is confident that the new coalition government of five parties and one faction will have enough votes,” Sanan Kachonprasart, a leader of the Chart Thai Pattana party, said.
The Democrats and their new allies claim to have 260 votes in the 480-seat parliament.
Puea Thai, the new name for the biggest party in the old coalition, has said it still has enough support to cobble together a new coalition, but some of its members seem to have defected already.
Newin Chidchob, the leader of an influential faction in that party, said yesterday 30 of the 37 members of parliament in his group would vote for the Democrats’ Abhisit as prime minister.
“I can assure you that my people will vote for the Democrats, as the majority of people wish to see,” said Newin, who was barred from politics for five years when his party was banned in a previous vote fraud ruling last year.
Puea Thai is the latest incarnation of a party grouping allies of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister by the military in a September 2006 coup and now lives in exile.
He has been at the heart of Thailand’s three-year political crisis, with Bangkok’s royal and military elites pitted against Thaksin and his allies, who won an election last December to end 15 months of army-backed government.
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