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Pro-Thaksin party claims to have Thai majority

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-07 19:03

BANGKOK – The party containing allies of ousted Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra claimed on Sunday to have enough support to form a coalition government to succeed the administration sacked last week by the courts.

Members of five political parties and one faction, including Democrat Party's secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban (C), join hands after forming a new coalition which hopes to create Thailand's next government, after a news conference in Bangkok December 6, 2008. [Agencies]

Puea Thai, the replacement for the now banned People Power Party (PPP) -- itself a replacement for Thaksin's banned Thai Rak Thai party -- countered claims by the opposition Democrat party they had picked up enough defectors to lead a coalition.

"Now we've got more than 222 votes, which exceeds the half of votes needed to form a government," deputy Puea Thai leader Kanawat Wasinsungworn said. "Our former coalition partners will join us. We now have enough votes."

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However, in a sign of more twists in store in interminable political strife that saw anti-Thaksin, royalist protesters take over Bangkok's main airport last week, Democrat spokesman Buranaj Smutharaks said his party and its new allies had secured 260 votes in parliament which has a normal strength of 480.

"I can confirm that we now have about 260 votes as we said yesterday," Buranaj told Reuters.

Normally, Thailand's parliament has 480 seats but that number has been thrown into confusion by last week's court ruling against PPP, which saw dozens of MPs from PPP and two other parties barred from politics for five years.

It is unclear when by-elections will be held to fill the empty seats, or whether there might have to be another general election -- the fourth in as many years.

It is also unclear when parliament will convene to choose a new Prime Minister.

Immediately after Tuesday's court ruling, the interim PPP cabinet said the vote should happen on December 8 and 9, although King Bhumibol Adulyadej did not grant his approval for the special session.

The influential 81-year-old monarch has since been taken ill, missing his traditional birthday eve address to the nation on Thursday. The palace said on Saturday his condition had improved.

The anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) ended its blockade of the airports the day after the court ruling, but has vowed to take to the streets once again if what it terms "Thaksin nominees" ever get close to power again.

Lingering support among the rural and urban poor for Thaksin, who was removed in a 2006 coup and is now in exile with a corruption conviction to his name, is likely to ensure a broadly sympathetic party wins any election.

Thailand has been in crisis for three years, with Bangkok's royal and military elites pitted against Thaksin and his allies in the PPP, which won an election a year ago to end 15 months of insipid army-backed government after the coup.