Mon, Jul 04, 2011
AFP
BANGKOK – Thailand’s powerful military will respect a landslide election win by allies of Thaksin Shinawatra who it toppled five years ago, the defence minister said Monday, easing fears of another coup.
Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra, a 44-year-old political newcomer who is set to become the kingdom’s first female prime minister, was scrambling to form a coalition after leading the Puea Thai Party to victory Sunday.
The election and its aftermath is a major test of Thailand’s ability to emerge from a long political crisis triggered by Thaksin’s 2006 overthrow, which last year saw the country’s worst civil violence in decades.
The Puea Thai Party – masterminded by Thaksin from his self-exile in Dubai – won a majority of 265 seats out of 500 in the lower house, the election commission said Monday after the vote count was completed.
That is well ahead of the 159 secured by outgoing premier Abhisit Vejjajiva’s establishment-backed Democrats, who have conceded defeat after two and a half years in power. Abhisit resigned as party leader Monday.
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