Pro-Thaksin party says coalition ready
Updated: 2007-12-24 19:42
BANGKOK, Thailand - The political party allied with deposed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday it has recruited enough other parties to form a coalition government following its win in the country's first post-coup election Sunday.
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The pro-Thaksin People's Power Party won 228 seats in the parliamentary election, falling short of an absolute majority in the lower house. To govern, it needs to join hands with at least one of the other six parties that won seats.
PPP secretary-general Surapong Suebwonglee said at a news conference that enough parties had responded to his party's entreaties for an alliance to form a ruling coalition with more than half the house seats.
"The PPP will form a government," he said, without naming its partners.
The second-place Democrat Party took 166 seats and has signaled readiness to form its own coalition.
"If the PPP succeeds in forming the government, the Democrat Party is ready to be in the opposition to protect the people's interest. However, if the PPP fails to form a government, the Democrat Party is also ready to form a government," said Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejajjiva.
Thai politics has been in almost constant turmoil since early 2006, when protests mushroomed demanding that Thaksin step down, despite his party's landslide victory a year earlier giving it an absolute parliamentary majority.
An April 2006 election was boycotted by the opposition and later declared invalid by the courts, leaving Thaksin's government in limbo until the September 19 military coup last year. But the military-appointed interim government that succeeded it proved weak and indecisive, failing to restore public confidence.
Thaksin was abroad at the time of his ouster, and has stayed in exile, legally barred from office, having his party dissolved by the courts, and being charged with a slew of corruption-related crimes.
Despite having vowed retirement from politics, he burnished his image from afar, with such moves as the purchase of England's Manchester City soccer club, slyly buying into the sport's popularity in Thailand.
Thaksin's PPP allies announced last week that he would return to Bangkok early next year, after a new government is installed. Thaksin did not comment publicly on the election results.
The forces that helped unseat Thaksin - the military, Bangkok's educated middle class, and the country's elite, including elements associated with the country's monarchy - have worked hard to erase Thaksin's political legacy.
They changed the constitution to limit the power of big parties and sought to demonize him as a corrupt destroyer of democracy. His return could undo their efforts and put their own positions in jeopardy.
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