By Xinhua,
Bangkok : Thailand’s House of Representatives on Monday elected veteran MP Chai Chidchob, nominated by the ruling People Power Party (PPP), as the new House Speaker to succeed Yongyuth Tiyapairat who earlier resigned due to electoral fraud charges against him.
Chai Chidchob, a party-list member of parliament of PPP, won 283 votes, mostly from the PPP MPs, against the only rival Banyat Bantadtan, a MP of the opposition Democrat Party, who won 158 votes in the 480-seat House, according to local TV Channel Eleven.
The special parliament meeting to vote a new House Speaker was called after the PPP, the core party of the coalition government, agreed unanimously last week to choose Chai as the party’s candidate for the top parliament post vacated by PPP MP Yongyuth.
First Deputy House Speaker Somsak Kiartsuranand, a PPP MP, chaired Monday’s meeting.
80-year-old Chai Chidchob, a multi-time MP and veteran politician from the northeastern province of Buri Ram, is father of Newin Chidchob, one of the 111 executives of the former ruling party Thai Rak Thai (TRT) who were banned from political activities for five years after the TRT was disbanded on a court order on electoral fraud charges last May.
Chai won a seat in the House as a PPP party-list MP candidate in the Dec. 23 election in Buri Ram.
One of the parties in the coalition government– Chart Thai (Thai Nation) Party has abstained from Monday’s voting as a gesture of protest, after the party called an urgent meeting on Sunday, during which party leader Banharn Silpa-archa complained about the PPP’s approach in securing votes of coalition parties to support Chai’s nomination.
Chart Thai has 37 seats in the 480-seat House, while PPP controls 233 seats. The six coalition parties altogether have 315 MPs in the House.
Responding to reporters’ questions after Monday’s voting, Interior Minister and PPP MP Chalerm Yubamrung said that Chart Thai’s abstaining had no impact since Chai has won enough votes to become the new House Speaker.
Some members of the coalition parties have reportedly questioned the “hasty” way the debate was scheduled, saying it was aimed to pressure other parties in the coalition government to accept the nomination.
The PPP reportedly moved up the voting from earlier scheduled Wednesday to Monday.
The search for the new House Speaker has been closely watched as the PPP-led coalition government and its opponents are engaged in a battle over the amendments to the 2007 Constitution, which was installed by the military-backed interim government after a military coup on Sept. 19, 2006 toppled Thaksin Shinawatra administration and abrogated the 1997 Constitution.
The PPP, the reincarnation of the Thaksin-founded TRT, has been pushing for the charter amending since it won the Dec. 23 election and formed the current coalition government.
The Democrat has accused Monday’s debate was part of the government’s scheme to push through its plan to amend the constitution.
Chai will fill the vacancy left by Yongyuth Tiyapairat, a former deputy leader of PPP who is facing trial for electoral fraud charges in last December’s general election and resigned from his post as House Speaker and Parliament President on April 30.
On Monday, the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions will summon former House Speaker Yongyuth to testify in the election fraud case against him.
Yongyuth had denied the vote-buying charges and said he resigned to uphold the dignity of the institution and to fight his case in the Supreme Court after the Election Commission sought to disqualify him, charging him of having bribed local heads in his hometown in the northernmost province of Chiang Rai where he contended as an PPP MP candidate to ensure his victory in the Dec.23 election.
47-year-old Yongyuth was elected as the House Speaker and President of Parliament on Jan. 22, after the PPP declared victory in the Dec. 23 election.