Thai Parliament gets nod to sit; PM to be named in 8 or 9 days

http://www.todayonline.com/World/EDC110729-0000037/Thai-Parliament-gets-nod-to-sit-PM-to-be-named-in-8-or-9-days

Thai Parliament gets nod to sit; PM to be named in 8 or 9 days
04:45 AM Jul 29, 2011
BANGKOK - The recently-elected Thai Parliament will have its first formal sitting on Monday, according to a royal decree issued on Wednesday.

The royal decree was countersigned by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn will preside over the ceremony at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall where he will deliver a ceremonial inauguration speech on behalf of the King.

The Thai Election Commission cleared the way for Parliament to convene and choose a Prime Minister, saying it had endorsed enough winning candidates from the July 3 election to produce a quorum.

The commission rushed through the certification of 94 winning candidates, taking the number of approved lawmakers to 496 of the 500 and surpassing the 475 needed for Parliament to hold its opening session on Monday.

The first task for the Parliament is to call a special session to select a Speaker, expected early next week.

The Puea Thai Party, which won with a landslide mandate, said on Wednesday it expected Parliament to elect a Prime Minister eight or nine days after the opening session, and the new government to start work by the end of the month.

If all goes as expected, Ms Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of former Premier Thaksin, will become Thailand's first woman Prime Minister.

Puea Thai has already agreed to set up a coalition government with five small parties giving it the backing of 300 of the 500 lawmakers, guaranteeing Ms Yingluck a smooth passage to office in a parliamentary vote.

The Election Commission on Wednesday endorsed four Puea Thai candidates who are also leaders of the Red Shirt protest movement, dismissing complaints about their role in bloody demonstrations and rioting in Bangkok last year.

The commission has so far approved 11 top members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship movement as lawmakers. Three more parliamentary seats will be decided on Sunday.

By-elections will held in two constituencies where winners were found to have committed irregularities, while a recount will be undertaken in one other ward in southern Yala province. Agencies

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http://news.yahoo.com/factbox-next-thai-government-formed-042955268.html

Factbox: How the next Thai government will be formed

By Vithoon Amorn | Reuters – Wed, Jul 27, 2011

(Reuters) - Thailand held a general election on July 3. The Puea Thai Party won a majority of the seats in parliament and will lead the next government.

The following explains when parliament is expected to sit and, tentatively, when the new government will be sworn in.

- The Election Commission has to review the status and qualifications of the candidates that won the 500 seats in the lower House of Representatives, taking into consideration complaints of poll violations made against them.

- The constitution says the commission needs to endorse at least 475 lower house members for the new legislature to have a quorum for opening parliament within 30 days of the election date, effectively Monday, August 1. The first formal sitting will be held the same day or soon after.

- As of Tuesday, July 26, the commission had endorsed 402 candidates. By-elections will be held for constituency seats where the candidate has been rejected. For party list seats, allocated to parties based on the percentage of votes they get nationwide, a disqualified candidate will simply be replaced by another from the same party.

- The first session of the lower house will choose, by simple majority vote, the speaker and deputy speakers of the House of Representatives. The elected speaker is by law also the speaker of the bicameral parliament that includes the Senate.

- The newly elected lower house speaker has to be endorsed by and swear an oath before King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He or she will then call a second session of the legislature within a day or two to elect a new prime minister by a simply majority vote. This session may come in the first week of August.

- After the lower house picks a new prime minister, its speaker will promptly submit his or her name to King Bhumibol for his endorsement, which will be announced on Radio Thailand the same day.

- The new prime minister receives the royal appointment carried by a palace official to his or her residence.

- The new prime minister will normally take up to a week to finalize his or her cabinet line-up before seeking the endorsement of the king, which by tradition is a formality. This is likely around the middle of August.

- After that endorsement, a royal command appointing cabinet ministers is announced on Radio Thailand the same day.

- The new prime minister and cabinet members take oath of office in an audience with King Bhumibol, expected to take place at Siriraj Hospital -- the king has been in hospital for almost two years -- on the day after the royal command.

- The prime minister delivers his or her policy statement to the lower house within 15 days of the new cabinet being sworn in, probably by late August.

(Reporting by Vithoon Amorn; Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould)