Selection stalemate

The ruling coalition has bogged down in the effort to agree on a new prime minister - and the strengthened opposition still doesn't have the votes to pick one either.

Parliament is supposed to meet on Monday to debate the selection of a new national leader to succeed Somchai Wongsawat. Mr Somchai and 108 other politicians were banned from office for five years on Tuesday by the Constitution Court.

If the MPs are really going to be able to meet productively on Monday, it will be a busy holiday weekend while the government, opposition and key minority parties confer.

Pracharaj party leader Sanoh Thienthong said that discussions on Friday among the five coalition partners agreed only that the next premier should not come from either the ruling Puea Thai (formerly People Power) or leading opposition Democrat parties.

A Puea Thai candidate could be too divisive, and provide the excuse for the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy to resume their street demonstrations.

A Democrat as prime minister is unthinkable to most government and coalition members. But a major faction of the ruling Puea Thai - Friends of Newin Chidchob - has teased political circles with threats to throw support to the Democrats, and give the opposition a tiny majority in the Lower House.

The five coalition parties - including Pracharaj, Puea Pandin, Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana, Chart Thai and Matchimathipataya - vowed yet again not to abandon Puea Thai and switch sides to the Democrats.

That would give the Bangkok-based party enough MPs to name a new prime minister. But Mr Sanoh said the coalition members decided such a decision "could change the political polarity and put the country in turmoil again."

By this, presumably, he meant that the red-shirted United Front of Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) would resume high-profile demonstrations, potentially as divisive as new PAD street protests.

Mr Sanoh said the bottom line was: The next premier should be an MP from one of the five coalition parties. He thinks many core members of the ruling Puea Thai party would agree with that.

Mr Sanoh himself has been rumoured as a candidate, but in recent days, the name of the leader of the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana leader has been heard more frequently.

He is Chetta Thanajaro, former army commander and supreme commander. Gen Chetta's main political attraction at the moment is that no one opposes him, and neither the PAD nor the UDD could justify renewed protests and violence if he becomes prime minister. (BangkokPost.com)