Party of Exiled Thai PM Ready to Govern

Strikes deal with at least one other party; Thaksin to return in '08
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 24, 2007 5:47 AM CST
Party of Exiled Thai PM Ready to Govern
Supporters of People's Power Party cheer election returns at the party's headquarters Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007, in Bangkok, Thailand. Early returns showed the PPP which backs former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra taking a lead over the rival Democrat Party. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)   (Associated Press)

Samak Sundaravej is set to become Thailand's next prime minister after his party announced today that it had recruited at least one other party to form a coalition government, the AP reports. The People's Power Party, the bloc allied with deposed PM Thaksin Shinawatra, won yesterday's elections but fell short of an absolute majority.

"The PPP will form a government," said a spokesman, although he declined to say which of the five other parties that won votes will join them. Thaksin remains in exile after the September 2006 coup that instituted military rule, but his supporters announced last week he would return to Thailand early next year. His rehabilitation could endanger the positions of the military and the elite that drove him from power. (More Thailand stories.)

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