Thai parliament elects pugnacious Samak as PM
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's parliament elected pugnacious right-winger Samak Sundaravej prime minister on Monday as the country returns to representative, civilian government after a bloodless September 2006 coup.
The 72-year-old has vowed to push for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return from exile, putting him on a collision course with the royalist elite accused of masterminding the coup -- especially the king's top adviser, Prem Tinsulanonda.
Analysts believe Samak, whose hatred of Prem is legendary, will try to rescind a five-year political ban imposed on Thaksin and 110 leading members of his Thai Rak Thai party before making way for his political patron to assume the top job once again.
"He will not last a full term. We are looking at months, rather than years, of Samak," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
"It's an expedient arrangement. Samak fits the bill -- he's what Thaksin needs right now."
Samak, who is leading a six-party coalition after his People Power Party (PPP) narrowly missed an outright majority on its own, won approval from 310 of the 480 members of parliament in Monday's vote.
There was no reaction on the stock and currency markets, where his appointment had been widely expected since the PPP won 233 seats in the December 23 election that marked the end of the army-appointed interim government.
"Undertaking the premiership is an entrusted job and responsibility that I volunteer to do," he told reporters, before heading off to a market to indulge in the second great love of his life after politics -- cooking.
His appointment becomes formal after its endorsement by revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, expected in the next few days.
Although most Thais are keen to see civilian rule succeed an inept post-coup government, fewer than half of the country's 65 million people are happy with Samak in the top job, according to the latest opinion polls.
One assessment by Bangkok's Assumption University showed support for Samak at only 44.3 percent nationwide. His popularity Bangkok is likely to be far lower after a less-than-glorious four years as its governor.
He is also loathed by the domestic media, although his bulbous nose is a gift to political cartoonists, who typically depict him as a foul-mouthed pig feeding at a trough.
Democracy campaigners also regard him with distrust, remembering his vitriolic radio campaign against student activists in the mid-1970s and support for a bloody crackdown in October 1976 that led to a coup. He then served briefly as interior minister in the military-appointed government.
"He was a very outspoken, right-wing politician who attacked the student movement and justified the crackdown and killings that took place at Thammasat University," said Chulalongkorn University political scientist Giles Ungphakorn.
"He said the people who died were Vietnamese agents and there was no evidence of that at all."
(Additional reporting by Darren Schuettler and Ed Cropley)
