Thai parliament votes Somchai Wongsawat as new PM

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-09-17 15:27

BANGKOK -- Thailand's House of Representatives on Wednesday voted Somchai Wongsawat, acting prime minister and deputy leader of People Power Party, as the country's new prime minister.

House Speaker Chai Chidchob announced that Somchai's nomination was backed by 298 votes after a one-by-one role-call tally that lasted for about one hour.

The other candidate, Abhisit Vejjajiva, party leader of the sole opposition Democrat Party, got 163 votes. Five MPs abstained.

Somchai Wongsawat speaks at a news conference at Parliament in Bangkok September 17, 2008, after he was voted in as the new prime minister of Thailand. [Agencies]

Somchai was supported by the PPP and the other five coalition parties in the caretaker government.

Somchai thanked all the MPs who have voted for him when the House Speaker concluded the voting results.

The voting session convened at 9:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) as scheduled. Finally 466 out of a total 470 members of parliament showed up for the voting.

A 61-year-old judicial expert, Somchai will become Thailand's 26th Prime Minister, succeeding Samak Sundaravej, who was disqualified by as premier by a Constitutional Court verdict on September 9, which found him in breach of the charter by hosting TV cooking shows while in office.

Somchai is brother-in-law of ousted Thaksin Shinwatra and former Justice Ministry permanent secretary. He served as first deputy prime minister in the Samak cabinet before appointed as acting premier to head the caretaker government.

Samak missed Wednesday's voting as he was reportedly still on the way heading to the parliament when the session ended at around 10:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

All about the new PM

61-year-old Somchai has long-time experience in judicial field, serving as judge for more than 20 years. He was permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry from 1999 to 2006, during the Chuan Leekpai and then the Thaksin Shinwatra administrations, then became permanent secretary for the Labor Ministry.

Somchai served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the cabinet of Samak Sundaravej, after it took office in early February and went through several reshuffles.

After Samak was disqualified by as premier by a Constitutional Court verdict on September 9, which found him in breach of the charter by hosting TV cooking shows while in office, Somchai was appointed as acting premier to head the caretaker government.

Somchai is known for his close relationship with the family of ex-Premier Thaksin Shinwatra. He is married to Yaowapa, the younger sister of Thaksin.

Yaowapa was a former MP from the Thaksin-founded former ruling TRT party, now defunct. Her voting right was revoked when the TRT was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2007 and remained an influential figure in the camp of former TRT MPs loyal to Thaksin, who is now in exile in Britain facing various corruption charges in Thailand.

Their daughter Chinnicha is the youngest female MP in the current House of Representatives.

A soft and moderate character and relatively good relationship with the opposition Democrat are deemed the strengths of Somchai, which his backers believe will help negotiate with anti-government group People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has led protesters to occupy the Government House for more than 20 days, and sort the way out of the current political impasse.

However, the PAD has declared that they would not support Somchai, or any other figure in the PPP whom they deem as another "nominee" of Thaksin, as the premier.