Abhisit Vejjajiva says he has enough support to be the next PM Thailand's opposition Democrats say they have the support of enough members of parliament to form a government. As many as 40 MPs from the former governing party have defected to the Democrat Party and its leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, in the last week. The courts dissolved the governing party and banned PM Somchai Wongsawat from politics over electoral fraud. A special session of parliament is expected to vote next week to elect a new prime minister. The Democrat Party will propose to parliament that Abhisit Vejjajiva becomes the next prime minister. But many of the members of the banned former governing party have formed a new party, Phuea Thai, and insist they can also form a new government. Airport blockade The power struggle at the heart of Thai politics comes after a tumultuous few months in which anti-government protesters campaigned to bring down the prime minister and the whole administration. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. They recently blockaded Bangkok's main international airport for more than a week, leaving 300,000 foreign travellers stranded and dealing a huge blow to the tourist industry. The blockade only ended when the Constitutional Court ruled that the PPP had committed electoral fraud, and barred Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat and other senior party members from politics. Now the battle has moved to parliament, and the Democrats, who lost to the PPP in the last general elections in December, are seizing their chance. One of the most powerful faction leaders in Thaksin's camp has gone over to the other side, taking as many as 40 MPs with him. Together with some of the smaller parties that have also switched loyalties, that gives the opposition Democrats 260 seats out of the parliament's 480, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok. In a sign of the passions generated by the crisis, an unexploded grenade and two coffins were found outside the home of an MP, Boonjong Wongtrairat, who has defected from Phuea Thai to the Democrats, Associated Press news agency said. The Democrats, fronted by the youthful and cosmopolitan Abhisit Vejajiva now seem poised to form a government for the first time since they were defeated in a landslide election by Mr Thaksin eight years ago, says our correspondent.
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Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Thai opposition (Democrat Party) leader Abhisit Vejjajiva won a majority of votes in the House of Representatives of Thailand on Monday and will be named the 27th Prime Minister of Thailand. Abhisit, an economist, got 235 votes against 198 by former national police chief and Pheu Pandin leader Pracha Promnok, a loyalist of fugitive Prime Mininster Thaksin Shinawatra. 

The nation's third prime minister in four months, Abhisit, at 44, is set to become the youngest prime minister Thailand has had, and its fifth leader in a little over two years. He will lead a weak coalition government. When prime minister Samak Sundaravej was removed in 2008, Abhisit lost the National Assembly vote for Prime Minister by 163 votes to 298 for Somchai Wongsawat. Later, however, the 2 December 2008 Constitutional Court of Thailand judgment banned the three parties including the PPP, which dissolved the governing coalition. The Court also banned Somchai from politics for five years, and removed him from office. He was succeeded by a deputy. 

When it became clear that another government under the For Thais Party or Puea Thai (the successor of the PPP) was not a viable option, the remainder of the Chart Thai Party under Sanan Krachonprasat, the Thais United National Development Party and Neutral Democratic Party, almost all, except for the Royal People Party decided to back a Democrat led coalition thereby endorsing Abhisit as the next Prime Minister.



"Abhisit gained more than half of the vote, therefore I declare that Abhisit has been voted as the new prime minister," House Speaker Chai Chidchob declared.
Abhisit's election, however, differs however from its confirmation by the Parliament. In this regared. Yahoo reported that "the count in the House of Representatives was unofficial and the chamber needed to official endorse the results before Abhisit could be declared prime minister. The chamber normally has 480 members, but because of vacancies currently numbers 437. One MP died on the eve of the voting."

Thaksin, who is living in an undisclosed foreign country to evade corruption charges, delivered a pre-recorded video message to about 50,000 supporters at a Bangkok stadium late Saturday. "At the moment the army is interfering... Those people who interfere in forming the government must stop and withdraw," he said. Army spokesman Colonel Sunsern Kaewkumnerd, however, dismissed his accusations.

Meanwhile, Thaksin's supporters, from the now-defunct People Power Party and Pheu Thai party, consisting of at least 200 demonstrators blocked access to Thailand's parliament building. The Nation reported that red shirt protesters "barricaded all gates out of the compound, checked cars trying to leave, while some cars had windows broken with clubs or bricks, and cars carrying MPs who had voted for Mr. Abhisit were not allowed through." The turmoil results in forcing officials and reporters to cover themselves. A reporter was "injured after a stone hit stone hit his nose, while an anti-riot police suffered head wound after an object hit his head," it said. "Police failed to calm them down, and they further organised protests in many provinces of Thailand, mostly in the northeastern region," The Thai newspaper further reported.