AP

Posted: 2008-01-28 02:15:24

BANGKOK, Jan. 28 (Kyodo) – (EDS: UPDATING)

Thailand’s post-coup House of Representatives on Monday elected People Power Party leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.

The PPP, consisting of supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, won last month’s general election and formed a coalition with five other parties, securing about two-thirds of the 480-seat lower house.

Samak was supported by 310 lawmakers while Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the Democrat Party, obtained only 163 votes.

Key members of the PPP-led coalition government have said it would take approximately a week for Samak to finalize his Cabinet.

Samak Sundaravej will take office after royal approval, expected within this week.

Samak, 73, entered politics in 1968 when he joined the Democrat Party and went on to hold several Cabinet posts including interior minister and transport minister.

He was accused of inciting right-wing mobs to storm Thammasat University on Oct. 6, 1976, resulting in scores of deaths.

He is also linked to a violent incident in May 1992 called “Black May” in which scores of demonstrators were killed.

Samak was later elected governor of Bangkok in 2000, but left office four years later accused of corruption while in office.

He is well known locally for a television cooking program that he hosted.

The door to the premiership was opened for Samak last year when he was chosen as PPP leader.

Samak announced that Thaksin urged him to take the post and that he would work to bring Thaksin back from exile.

Thaksin was ousted in a bloodless coup in September 2006 and a junta, followed by a junta-appointed Cabinet, ran the country until the general election last month.