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Thailand’s political turmoil deepens as parliament postpones vote on PM
Thailand’s political turmoil deepened Friday when the ruling coalition failed to turn up to parliament to reelect leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.
Lawmakers from the six-party coalition did not attend an emergency session of parliament called to choose a prime minister, three days after a court stripped Samak of power for accepting payments for hosting TV cooking shows.
PPP’s deputy leader Somchai Wongsawat, currently the acting prime minister, played down a forced postponement of the vote until next Wednesday but declined to say whether the party would stick with Samak.
“After today, each party in the coalition will have to hold internal discussions on candidates for next week’s vote,” he told reporters.
“I cannot say whether there will be a change in the candidate’s name. It depends on the consultations among the political parties,” he said.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling did not bar the fiery-tongued 73-year-old Samak from politics over the cooking shows, leaving no legal barrier to him being re-elected.
His People Power Party (PPP) had agreed Thursday to do just that, but the decision sparked a revolt among its coalition partners and even among some of the party’s own MPs.
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