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Thai opposition leader becomes PM

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-12-15 16:31

BANGKOK – Lawmakers chose an opposition leader as Thailand's prime minister Monday in a bid to end months of political chaos, as supporters of the previous government unsuccessfully tried to halt the result by blockading Parliament.

Abhisit Vejjajiva greets members of Parliament after being voted in as the prime minister of Thailand in Bangkok December 15 2008. [Agencies]

The articulate, Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva, who heads the Democrat Party, gathered 235 votes against 198 by former national police chief Pracha Promnok, a loyalist of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The lower house vote followed six months of instability caused by anti-government and anti-Thaksin demonstrations that culminated last month with a weeklong takeover of Bangkok's two airports.

The selection of a new prime minister was expected to calm the country's politics, at least temporarily. However, several hundred Thaksin supporters tried to block the gates of Parliament in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the outcome. Riot police later cleared a path for lawmakers to leave the compound.

The demonstrators surrounded vehicles and hurled abuse at lawmakers inside but most dispersed peacefully, saying that they would gather again later Monday in the capital's old historic section.

Following the vote, Abhisit - at 44, one of the world's youngest heads of state  thanked fellow lawmakers and the public but said he would not talk about politics until he was officially endorsed as prime minister by the constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The chamber normally has 480 members, but because of vacancies currently numbers 437. One MP died on the eve of the voting.

Related readings:  Thai opposition poised to take power  Opposition seeks vote for new Thai PM  Thai opposition looks set to form new government  Pro-Thaksin party claims to have Thai majority

Despite Monday's protest outside Parliament, analysts foresee relative stability in the coming months following political chaos and the airport siege which ended after a court ruling on December 2 dissolved the ruling People's Power Party and two coalition partners. It also handed a five-year political ban to former premier Somchai Wongsawat, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

The remnants of the PPP regrouped as the Phuea Thai Party, which were also seeking a majority in Monday's session.

The anti-Thaksin protest movement seeks to purge politics of the influence of Thaksin - who was ousted by a 2006 coup after being accused of corruption and abuse of power - and has threatened new but unspecified activities if Parliament elects a leader with links to him.

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