By DPA
Bangkok : Thailand’s People Power Party (PPP), regarded as a proxy for exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which swept the December elections, said Thursday it has formed a six-party coalition.
The coalition would be unveiled Saturday, said party secretary-general Surapong Suebwongless, who added that PPP leader Samak Sundaravej would be forwarded to parliament as the new prime minister.
“This government is almost complete. We are ready and we are able to move the country forward,” said Samak Sundaravej, the PPP’s new leader, on a national radio interview.
The PPP still has a legal hurdle to clear. The Supreme Court will hear a petition Friday from an opposition Democrat politician that claims the party is a proxy for Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, which was dissolved for electoral fraud after the September 2006 coup that ousted the prime minister.
Thaksin and 110 other Thai Rak Thai members were banned from politics for five years by the constitutional court last year, but the Democrat politician claims they were re-elected by proxy in violation of the electoral laws.
Although the PPP clearly is a proxy for Thaksin – even Samak has said “What is wrong with being a proxy?” – and is the source of its strength, the political mood appears to have swung away from a probably divisive outright ban.
Even Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has said the court action is unwanted.
The PPP won 233 of 480 seats in the Dec 23 elections.
Party secretary Surapong said negotiations for cabinet portfolios would take place next week, with the PPP claiming the ministries of finance, transport, tourism, defence, justice and interior.
Thaksin told reporters in England last night that he would like to return to Thailand in two or three months, according to the Bangkok Post online.