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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai ruling party to pick new PM Monday |
| 2008-09-14 |
| (Xinhua) -- Thailand's core ruling party, People Power Party (PPP) is set to decide on its candidate for the prime minister post on Monday, after party leader and disqualified premier Samak Sundaravej declined the nomination amid strong opposition, said a deputy party minister on Saturday. Sompong Amornwiwat, a PPP deputy leader and caretaker justice minister, said that the PPP nomination, once decided and sent to the other five coalition parties, will be submitted to the House of Representatives for voting. He also said that all the six parties in the caretaker coalition government, led by PPP, will make a statement at a joint press conference on Tuesday, he said. The selection of a new premier started after Samak was forced out of job with a verdict of the Constitutional Court on Sept. 9 which found him violate the charter by hosting two TV cooking shows while in office. Samak had been embattled by the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) with continuous street protests since May, calling for the step-down of him and his cabinet, accusing the administration of a proxy of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who had faced mass protests led by PAD and was finally ousted in a military coup in Sept. 19, 2006. The PPP declared on Thursday that it would renominate Samak as the new premier candidate at Friday's voting, and Samak accepted it later. However, it was met with opposition by fractions of PPP and the other five coalition parties in the coalition government, now a caretaker one, who boycotted a parliament voting session scheduled on Friday morning, leading to the abortion of the voting for lack of quorum. The voting to elect a new prime minister was rescheduled on Sept.17 Samak then reportedly withdrew his bid to be reinstalled, and speculation held that he would soon declare a resignation from the PPP party leader post. On Saturday, PAD leaders Chamlong Srimuang and Somsak Kosaisuk said at a press conference that the group maintained its stance that the entire caretaker cabinet must resign unconditionally. They also renewed urges for the new administration to implement its so-called "new politics" concept -- to have a partly-appointed, partly-elected House of Representatives, with the appointed MPs outnumbering elected ones. They claimed it was to protect the country from domination of corrupted politicians, but critics see it as a step backward in the country's democracy. |
| Posted by:Fred |