Thaksin kin elected PM, urges healing

Somchai Wongsawat, a 61-year-old former judge and government bureaucrat married to Thaksin’s younger sister, won a clear majority of parliamentary votes as the six-party ruling coalition held firm.

He has been acting prime minister since Samak Sundaravej, whom the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) also accused of being an agent for Thaksin, was sacked by a court last week for hosting TV cooking shows while in office.

Just an hour after being elected, the bespectacled and soft-spoken Somchai called for national reconciliation to end the political crisis that dates back to the PAD’s first attacks on Thaksin in late 2005. Their campaign played a major part in the coup that followed in 2006.

His words are likely to fall on deaf ears, with the PAD immediately labelling him a Thaksin nominee and vowing to continue its three-week occupation of the prime minister’s official compound.

We really don’t care. This is just a group of bandits choosing a new leader, PAD leader Somsak Kosaisuk told reporters. Somchai’s wife, one of 111 Thaksin-linked politicians banned from politics for five years after the coup, has been accused of links to dodgy deals at Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi airport, charges she denies.

However, analysts said that, and his obvious family ties to Thaksin, would provide ammunition for the PAD and opposition Democrat party against a man otherwise seen as bland, inoffensive and lacking in charisma.