Thaksin allies unveil coalition
Thailand's People Power Party (PPP) has announced a coalition government with five smaller parties, following December's elections.

The move came after a court dismissed legal challenges against the PPP, which won the largest share of the vote.

The party is allied to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed by the military in 2006.

Its opponents had claimed the party was merely a proxy for Mr Thaksin, who was banned from politics for five years.

The PPP's leader Samak Sundaravej told a news conference on Saturday that it had taken "a long time to get here" but the coalition's two-thirds majority meant "the government can last a long time".

Mr Samak said parliament would reconvene on Monday, when a new prime minister would be chosen.

The name must then be submitted to King Bhumibol Adulyadej for approval - a formality that usually takes a few days.

Mr Samak, 72, who served as deputy prime minister alongside Mr Thaksin in 1995, adopted a populist platform for the election campaign and promised voters he would work to improve the economy.

Return question

The PPP won the most seats in December's national polls but several challenges threatened to prevent it from forming a government.

Sixty five of the 233 seats it won have been investigated by the Election Commission - far more than any other party. Three were disqualified and others ordered to face re-runs.

The Supreme Court had also heard a claim filed by Democrat candidate Chaiwat Sinsuwong, who alleged that the PPP was a proxy for Mr Thaksin's dissolved Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party and should therefore be banned.

Many TRT members went on to form the PPP.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok says many in Thailand had started to believe that Mr Thaksin's opponents, who wield huge influence behind the scenes, would use the judiciary to keep his allies from office.

The next big question confronting Thailand as it returns to democratic rule, he says, is when Mr Thaksin will come home and whether he will be allowed to play a political role again.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7197507.stm

Published: 2008/01/19 08:25:42 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Good news for Thai people. Well done! and thank you for the justic.

Great news (I hope). I have been on a coach all day to Bangkok so had not heard.

Had the PPP ever tried to hide their Thaksin connection ? I think not - look at their logo - its almost identical.

You can ban a party on very dodgy grounds but you cannot keep determined people down - so despite disproportionate red/yellow carding of PPP (my personal feedback is that the Democrats were trying to buy votes and I am not saying any one party is innocent) and the previous banning of over 100 TRT's top people, they have still won against the odds.

No doubt there will be further wise words on the opposite view from the usual experts on this site who never come clean and say who they support.

quote:

Originally posted by patcharin:
Good news for Thai people.

I do hope you are right

I've come to the conclusion that if the elections were fair then the PPP should be given a run at governing regardless of any connection to Thaksin/TRT.
Would any of his opponents have been any better for the country as a whole if Thaksin never existed ? Sondhi seemed as slippery as they come and only opposed Thaksin when his own snout was pushed out of the trough. The same could be said for the High-So Palace fraternity that didnt like either Thaksins popularity or his ability to stitch up the country's new techno wealth.
As for the war on drugs it might not have happened if the military were actually doing something to stop the trade in the border areas instead of leaving theirselves open to accusations of profiting from it.
He seems the best of an altogetherly bad bunch, and I'd suspect that the majority of Thais realise this as opposed to actually thinking he's wonderful.
He might have benefitted himself disproportionately while in power but I cant see any other party also benefitting as many of the population - which should be what happens in democracies.

Rob

Roberrrt, Very well put.

Politicians are not there to be loved, only to do a job.