By Xinhua,
Bangkok : Thailand’s House of Representatives on Wednesday voted Somchai Wongsawat, acting prime minister and deputy leader of People Power Party, as the country’s new prime minister.
House Speaker Chai Chidchob announced that Somchai’s nomination was backed by 298 votes after a one-by-one role-call tally that lasted for about one hour.
The other candidate, Abhisit Vejjajiva, party leader of the sole opposition Democrat Party, got 163 votes. Five MPs abstained.
Somchai was supported by the PPP and the other five coalition parties in the caretaker government.
Somchai thanked all the MPs who have voted for him when the House Speaker concluded the voting results.
The voting session convened at 9:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) as scheduled. Finally 466 out of a total 470 members of parliament showed up for the voting.
A 61-year-old judicial expert, Somchai will become Thailand’s 26th Prime Minister, succeeding Samak Sundaravej, who was disqualified by as premier by a Constitutional Court verdict on Sept. 9, which found him in breach of the charter by hosting TV cooking shows while in office.
Somchai is brother-in-law of ousted Thaksin Shinwatra and former Justice Ministry permanent secretary. He served as first deputy prime minister in the Samak cabinet before appointed as acting premier to head the caretaker government.
Samak missed Wednesday’s voting as he was reportedly still on the way heading to the parliament when the session ended at around10:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).