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Thai PM-Apparent Begins to Select His Cabinet Lineup
Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire politician looks set to become the next prime minister of Thailand due to his Thai Rak Thai Party's landslide victory in Saturday's general election, has started to handpick a cabinet line-up, local TV channel reported Monday.
Reports said he has summoned key Thai Rak Thai ("Thai Loves Thai") figures to hold a meeting yesterday to discuss the selection.
However, party officials said the tycoon-turned-politican will not convene a party assembly on the matter until Thai Rak Thai's victory is finally certified by the Election Commission, which is definitely delayed due to voting count problems.
With half of the parliamentary seats apparently held in hand, Thaksin can choose the future cabinet members all on his own opinion, with his two likely coalition partners sidelined by a lack of bargaining power for their poor showings in the election.
The two potential allies, Chart Thai and New Aspiration were only expected to grab about 39 and 33 seats respectively.
Analysts said given Thaksin's clear mandate and his strong desire to form a stable government, his cabinet is likely to be an amalgam of veteran politicians and technocrats.
Potential Thai Rak Thai candidates for key posts include Bangkok Bank Executive Chairman Kosit Panpiemras and Bank of Thailand Governor Chatu Mongol Sonakul for finance minister, retired interior official Pramual Rujanaseri for interior minister, businessman Somkid Jatusripitak for commerce minister, and politician Surjya Juengrungruengkit for industry minister.
Retired diplomat Pracha Kunakasem was tipped to take the portfolio of foreign ministry, while former general Thammarak Issarangkul na Ayutthaya rumored to be defense minister.
With its parliamentary majority, Thaksin will likely select either veteran politician Uthai Pimchaichon or newly-elected party-list candidate Pongthep Thepkanchana as House speaker.
Thaksin has put on hold talks with the two potential coalition partners pending the announcement of the final vote tallies, a party official said.
Thai Rak Thai is in a strong position when it comes to negotiating with the New Aspiration and Chart Thai, and is unlikely to concede their demands for the education and agriculture portfolios, the official said.
Vote-Count Disrupted by ComplaintsThe vote-count in some of the 400 constituencies across Thailand for Saturday's general election has been disrupted as hundreds of losing candidates flooded the Election Commission £šEC£© offices with complaints and requests for either vote recounts or re-election, local TV channel reported Monday.
TV reports showed vociferous protests halted the counting in constituencies in two southern provinces of Surat Thani and Nakon Si Thammarat.
Telephones were continually ringing at the EC headquarters in Bangkok as local EC officials sought instruction on how to deal with the protests.
Commissioner Yuwarat Kamolwej admitted that vote-count in some constituencies has been halted, although the law requires that once counting starts, it must continue until it is completed.
The EC had expected to complete the counting at 10 am Sunday (0300GMT ), but the numerous protests definitely delayed the process with a unknown finishing time.
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