- The sister of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced an agreement on Monday to form a five-party coalition government after her Pheu Thai Party won a landslide victory in Thailand's parliamentary elections.
- Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, whose brother was ousted from the prime minister post by a 2006 military coup, is set to become Thailand's first female leader after a vote that marks a significant political comeback for Mr. Thaksin.
- Ms. Yingluck, whose Pheu Thai Party already has won a majority of 265 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament under preliminary results of Sunday's polling, announced an agreement that would boost her coalition to 299 seats.
- That accord came unusually quickly for Thai politics, where hard bargaining usually takes place over allocation of Cabinet seats. The pact should gain Ms. Yingluck's government-to-be some stability, especially if legal challenges under electoral law force some of her party's lawmakers from their positions.
- The Democrat Party, which has led a coalition government for more than three years, will be in opposition.
- The victory comes one year after the government crushed protests by Thaksin supporters with a bloody crackdown that culminated some of the worst violence here in 20 years and ended with parts of the capital ablaze in a wave of arson attacks allegedly carried out by fleeing protesters
No comments:
Post a Comment