Democrat Party believes new Thai PM could be nominated next week

BANGKOK, Sept 13 (TNA) -- Thailand's opposition Democrat Party is
confident that a new prime minister can be nominated next Wednesday by the six-parties in the recent coalition government, said Chuan Leekpai, chief Democrat advisor.

Mr. Chuan, a former prime minister, said the decision by Samak Sundaravej,
leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), rejecting a fresh
nomination for the post of prime minister was totally the coalition's
business. The senior Democrat had advised earlier that it was too soon to
nominate a new prime minister within three days of the former premier's
being disqualified.

The prime minister's post was vacated when Mr. Samak was removed from the
post by the Constitution Court on Tuesday for constitutional infractions,
technicalities of receiving money for hosting cooking shows on commercial
televisions and benefiting from the commercial packaging of the materials.

On Friday, the House of Representatives held a session to nominate the new
prime minister but the meeting was adjourned to next Wednesday due to the
lack of quorum in the House.

Mr. Chuan said it was normal for the Democrat Party to nominate party
leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as new prime minister during Friday's session.

He said before Mr. Abhisit was nominated, there was enough quorum in the
House but when the name was proposed, members of the PPP walked out of the
chamber, making it impossible to nominate the Democrat, and the House
Speaker Chai Chidchob also closed the session immediately.

Under the terms of the charter, a new prime minister must be elected
within 30 days of the date the House being convened for its first sitting
and the chief minister must obtain at least half of the 470 overall votes
in the House of Representatives.

If the House does not approve a prime minister, the Speaker will within 15
days of the end of the 30-day time frame present to the King the person
who received the most votes to become prime minister by Royal Command.

Mr. Chuan said an earlier proposal by Mr. Abhisit calling for a
dissolution of the House and a fresh election could well be the best
solution for the current political turmoil as anti-government protesters
loyal to the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have warned that they
would not accept the new prime minister from PPP and its partners camps.

He said the present political turbulence was resulted from rampant
vote-buying in the election and the best way to solve the problem is to
"prevent and get rid of business politics".

As for the State of Emergency that was now implemented in Bangkok, Mr.
Chuan said the decree had only caused negative impacts, particularly in
the business sector, damage confidence among investors.

He did not state directly that the decree should be revoked, but noted
that even Army Commander in Chief General Anupong Paochinda who was
assigned to enforce the emergency wanted the government to lift it.

Mr. Samak announced enforcement of the Emergency Decree on Public
Administration in Emergency Situations to be applied in Bangkok only on
September 2 after street clashes between supporters of the pro-government
National United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) and the
anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD).