Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva elected as Thailand's new PM
15/12/2008 17:00
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was elected as Thailand's new
prime minister at a special voting session in the House of Representatives
today.
Official tally results, as announced by House Speaker Chai Chidchob at
around 11:30 am (0430 GMT), showed Abhisit gained 235 votes from the total 437
incumbent members of parliament in the House, against the 198 votes for the
other candidate -- Puea Thai Party leader Pracha Promnok.
A total of 436 MPs
have cast their votes. Three MPs abstained, including Abhisit himself. Chai
closed the session immediately after announcing Abhisit's victory in the
voting.
A simple majority, which means at least 219, out of the 437 MP seats,
is required for any candidate to be elected a prime minister.
The 44-year-old
Abhisit will officially become the country's 27th prime minister pending royal
endorsement from the King.
The results mean the Democrat Party returned to
the ruling seat after seven years on the opposition bench since Thaksin
Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai party came to power in 2001.
Today's special
parliamentary session, which kicked off at 9: 30 am (0230 GMT), was called after
former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat lost his premiership with a
Constitutional Court verdict on Dec. 2 that disbanded Somchai's People Power
Party (PPP), the leading party in the former coalition government formed in
September, on electoral fraud charges.
Somchai was Thaksin's brother-in-law
and seen as opponents as a proxy of Thaksin, who went on exile after the Sept.
19, 2006 military coup that ousted him from the premiership.
Dozens of
"red-shirt" people, who are supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin and the
pro-Thaksin parties like PPP and Puea Thai, gathered outside the parliament
compound since the morning. Learning the results, the angry demonstrators were
seen attacking the compound gate with iron police barriers.
They also
attacked some Democrat MPs' cars parking outside the parliament and demanded a
House dissolution.
Xinhua
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