Somchai Wongsawat was elected as Thailand's 26th Prime Minister with 298 votes in a voting in the House of Representatives Wednesday.
Somchai, deputy leader of People Power Party, was supported by the PPP and the other five coalition parties in the caretaker government.
His nomination, agreed by PPP party executives on Monday, was earlier boycotted by a fraction of 73 PPP MPs, called "Friends of Newin" who were loyal to Newin Chidchob, former executive of the now defunct Thai Rak Thai party (TRT).
On Tuesday, the PPP reached reconciliation as the Newin fraction agreed to accept Somchai to become the next premier.
61-year-old Somchai has long-time experience in judicial field, serving as judge for more than 20 years. He was permanent secretary of the Justice Ministry from 1999 to 2006, during the Chuan Leekpai and then the Thaksin Shinwatra administrations, then became permanent secretary for the Labor Ministry.
Somchai served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the cabinet of Samak Sundaravej, after it took office in early February and went through several reshuffles.
After Samak was disqualified by as premier by a Constitutional Court verdict on Sept. 9, which found him in breach of the charter by hosting TV cooking shows while in office, Somchai was appointed as acting premier to head the caretaker government.
Somchai is known for his close relationship with the family of ex-Premier Thaksin Shinwatra. He is married to Yaowapa, the younger sister of Thaksin.
Yaowapa was a former MP from the Thaksin-founded former ruling TRT party, now defunct. Her voting right was revoked when the TRT was dissolved by the Constitutional Court in 2007 and remained an influential figure in the camp of former TRT MPs loyal to Thaksin, who is now in exile in Britain facing various corruption charges in Thailand.
Their daughter Chinnicha is the youngest female MP in the current House of Representatives.
A soft and moderate character and relatively good relationship with the opposition Democrat are deemed the strengths of Somchai, which his backers believe will help negotiate with anti-government group People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which has led protesters to occupy the Government House for more than 20 days, and sort the way out of the current political impasse.
However, the PAD has declared that they would not support Somchai, or any other figure in the PPP whom they deem as another "nominee" of Thaksin, as the premier.
Source:Xinhua
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