BANGKOK --Thailand's parliament elected Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva prime minister Monday in a vote which - if Mr. Abhisit's fragile coalition holds together - could offer one of Southeast Asia's largest economies a way out of years of sometimes violent political turmoil.
AFP/Getty Images Abhisit Vejjajiva smiles Monday after being elected Thailand's prime minister.
Mr. Abhisit won election with 234 votes to opponent Pracha Promnok's 197 ballots, making him leader of a new coalition government with a slim majority in parliament. The vote returned a Democrat Party-led government to power for the first time in eight years. The new ruling coalition replaces a government backed by supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra which had been in power since December 2007.
Many of Mr. Abhisit's votes came from defectors from the previous ruling coalition of Thaksin loyalists. The former premier, a populist multi-millionaire, led Thailand from late 2001 until September 2006, when he was toppled in a military coup.
Mr. Thaksin is currently in self-imposed exile to evade imprisonment on a corruption conviction earlier this year.
Political analysts say the 44-year-old, British-educated Mr. Abhisit will have to work hard to accommodate the defectors, many of whom were elected to parliament in Mr. Thaksin's traditional rural strongholds in north and northeast Thailand.
There is also the risk that voters will put Mr. Thaksin's supporters back into power when the new government calls for fresh parliamentary elections, which must take place by 2011. "The cycle of conflict could start all over again," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
Thailand Seeks a Way Out As political unrest has grown in recent months, Thailand's economy has suffered. View Interactive
Thailand's deep political crisis began with 2006's military coup that ousted Mr. Thaksin. After a period of military rule, democracy was restored in December 2007. But rural voters again elected a government comprised of Mr. Thaksin's followers.
That outcome upset many in Thailand's urban middle class and traditional economic and social elite of business leaders, bureaucrats and military officers. Large street protests erupted in Bangkok, culminating with antigovernment protesters seizing Thailand's two main airports last month, cutting of the Bangkok's air links for a week and throwing the country's tourism and export-dependent economy into chaos.
The protesters, calling themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, said they were alarmed by Mr. Thaksin's continuing behind-the-scenes influence and the way he and his supporters allegedly manipulated one-person, one-vote politics to extend their hold on power.
Led by media tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul, the protesters have called for a radical overhaul of Thailand's electoral system to place more power in the hands of appointed legislators more sympathetic to the concerns of the country's conservative bureaucratic and military establishment.
Thailand's previous coalition government - comprised of Mr. Thaksin's supporters and led by his brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat - collapsed on Dec. 2, after Thailand's Constitutional Court banned Mr. Somchai and other key leaders from politics for five years for electoral fraud and disbanded their People Power Party.
Mr. Abhisit says the Democrat Party then began approaching members of the pro-Thaksin coalition to see if they defect to a new coalition. He says many wanted to find a solution to Thailand's seemingly unbridgeable political divides and a prospective coalition began to form around the Democrats.
Army chief Gen. Anupong Paochinda also played a role in the political maneuvering, putting Democrat and pro-Thaksin politicians in touch with each other. He denies pressuring pro-Thaksin legislators to switch sides, however.
Some political analysts say the recent illness of 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, which prevented him from delivering his customary birthday speech on Dec. 4, accelerated the defections. Many Thais were looking forward to King Bhumibol's remarks, in which he sometimes provides advice on political matters.
The key defector to the Democrat-led coalition was Newin Chidchob, a powerful rural politician who was previously one of Mr. Thaksin's most important lieutenants. Controlling a group of about 30 members of parliament, Mr. Newin initiated talks with Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thuagsuban before cementing his alliance in a public meeting with Mr. Abhisit.
On Dec. 9, after he was photographed shaking hands with Mr. Abhisit, Mr. Newin still referred to Mr. Thaksin as his "boss."
"I still respect him. Personally, nothing has changed," Mr. Newin said. "But sometimes I have to make decisions for the public good rather than personal gain."
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@awsj.com
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.