Thailand's political parties, leading or lagging runners, are now looking into the post-polls future one day after the country held the first post-coup general election on Sunday, but the picture appears unclear by far.
The People Power Party (PPP), seen as a nominee party for Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted by a military coup in September last year, has won most MPs seats in Sunday's general election, but short of a simple majority in becoming a single-party government.
Therefore, it will approach two smaller parties to form a coalition government, a PPP spokesman said Monday.
Spokesman Kuthep Saikrajang was quoted by Thai News Agency as saying that, although final election results had not been officially announced, senior PPP executives would confer with Chart Thai (Thai Nation) Party and Puea Pandin Party (For the Motherland Party) in forming a coalition government.
He said he believed Banharn Silpaarcha, leader of Chart Thai Party and former prime minister who is an acquaintance with PPP leader Samak Sundaravej, could agree on joining and form a coalition government to solve problems prevailing in Thailand.
Banharn said late Sunday night that his Chart Thai Party, one of Thailand's veteran political parties, would ally with the young Puea Pandin Party.
However, the 75-year-old seasoned politician remained tight-lipped by far as to which of the top two parties -- the PPP or the Democrat Party, the Chart Thai-Puea Pandin alliance would join in forming a coalition government.
Taking reporters' question on Monday, he said in a half-joke manner that it was a difficult job to form a coalition whatever and he guessed it might take up to 15 days to settle.
There are talks circulating in Bangkok already which said that Banharn, a former prime minister, might ask the PPP or the Democrat for the top job of prime minister in the government in exchange for joining a coalition with any party.
Initial election results showed the PPP has won 228 MP seats nationwide out of the total 480 seats in the House of Representatives contested in Sunday's election, while the Democrat Party, Thailand's oldest political party, collected 166 seats.
They were followed with Banharn's Chart Thai with 39 seats while the Puea Pandin at fourth place with 26 seats.
Meanwhile, Puea Pandin party leader Suvit Khunkitti is due to make a statement about his party's political direction later on Monday.
The party's spokesman Watchiramon Gunakasemthanawat admitted that the PPP party led by Samak Sundaravej had contacted the party Sunday night about forming a coalition government but not much progress was made.
He also denied his party has agreed to join forces with Chart Thai, but would rather wait for clarity on EC's decision on whether to issue red and yellow cards to nullify some winning MP candidates on electoral cheating charges, before deciding on which side to choose.
He said Puea Pandin's main standpoint is that "we are a party that favors national reconciliation."
In Thailand's election system, the party or the coalition of parties winning a majority of seats at the House will be empowered to form a new government, with the winning party or parties electing a prime minister, who must be an elected MP, to lead the cabinet.
Now with the most but not majority seats at the parliament, the PPP has to form a coalition with some smaller parties to secure a stable leadership both at the parliament and the government-to-be.
Observers say that with over 70 seats in hand, the Chart Thai and Puea Pandin parities now hold big bargain power as to with which of the top two parties it would join for a coalition, and how big a share it will get from the coalition whatever.
Smaller parties in the contest like the Pracharaj (Royal People Party), Matchima Thippathai (Neutral Democratic Party) and Ruam Jai Thai Chat Pattana (Thais United National Development Party), each with only a few MP seats in pocket, or a dozen at most, will also be targeted by either the PPP or the Democrat, or both, as possible partners in a future coalition.
Source: Xinhua
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