Lack of quorum delays Parliamentary vote for new prime minister

BANGKOK, Sept 12 (TNA) - The parliamentary vote to decide whether Samak Sundaravej would return to the Prime Minister post was forced to delay due to lack of quorum as most of the members of parliament from the coalition parties did not turn up.

House Speaker Chai Chidchob decided to postpone the session and ordered
the next meeting to nominate new prime minister to be convened on
Wednesday at 9:30am.

The absence of MPs was apparently due to conflicts among coalition parties
of the ruling party -- the People's Power Party (PPP) and also factions
inside the PPP itself that opposed the re-nomination of Mr. Samak as prime
minister.

Mr. Samak was stripped from his post as prime minister on Tuesday after
the Constitution Court ruled that he violated the charter due to his
having hosted cooking shows on commercial television stations -- which was
considered a conflict of interest, but the PPP nonetheless resolved to
reinstate the sharp-tongued former premier.

Parliament began its special session to nominate a new prime minister at
about 9.40 am as 246 of the 470 members of parliament were enrolled for
the session, enough numbers to complete a quorum.

Banyat Bantadtan from the opposition Democrat Party proposed its party
leader Abhisit Vejjajiva to compete for the post of prime minister.

Then PPP MP Sukhumphand Ngon-kam asked the House Speaker to check the
quorum, and it was determined that there were only 161 members of
parliament on hand at the session, which was insufficient for a quorum.

Mr. Chai, who chaired the meeting, announced about 10am that the session
could not proceed as there were not enough MPs as required by the rules
and delay the meeting until next Wednesday.

In the absence of the PPPs coalition partners, Democrat Party secretary
general Suthep Thuaksuban tried to persuade Mr. Chai to recount the
numbers of MPs present at the session but failed to convince the Speaker.

Mr. Suthep said after the adjournment of the meeting that he thought Mr.
Chai was too quick to call the delay.

Meanwhile, PPP deputy leader Somchai Wongsawat, currently acting prime
minister, said party members would meet in one or two days to discuss the
candidates to be proposed for Prime Minister next week but stopped short
of saying whether the party would stand by Mr. Samak or not.

He added that the decision would also depend on the consultations among
the six coalition parties .(TNA)