Thaksin's Brother-in-law Proposed to Become Thailand's Next PM

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN / AP WRITER

BANGKOK — Thailand's ruling party endorsed the brother-in-law of controversial former leader Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday as its nominee to become the next prime minister, paving the way for more strife with anti-government protesters.

After days of closed-door talks, the executive committee of the People's Power Party agreed to nominate acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat at a parliamentary vote scheduled for Wednesday, said party spokesman Kuthep Saikrajang.

Somchai served as a deputy prime minister and education minister under Samak Sundaravej, who was forced to resign as premier last week for violating the constitution. But Somchai is best known as the brother-in-law of Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup by military leaders who accused him of corruption.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, a strident anti-government group whose supporters have occupied the prime minister's office compound since August 26, immediately rejected Somchai as a future prime minister.

The anti-government protesters accused Samak of being a stooge for Thaksin, who recently fled to Britain to escape corruption charges. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup after street demonstrations by the same group, which has vowed to continue its protests if another Thaksin ally is named the new prime minister.

"Somchai is very close to the Shinawatra family," said Chamlong Srimuanng, one of the protest leaders. "He is Thaksin's brother-in-law and will be even more his proxy than Samak ever was."

The Constitutional Court ruled that Samak had violated a conflict-of-interest law by accepting money for hosting TV cooking shows while in office and ordered him to resign. It was an unrelated twist in the country's deepening political crisis.

Anti-government protesters initially said their goal was to remove Samak but now say they will not accept any successor from his party or ally of Thaksin.

The alliance is a mixture of monarchists, members of the military and the urban elite. They complain that Western-style democracy gives too much power to the rural poor, who they say are susceptible to vote buying. The alliance has proposed a rollback of democracy by replacing an elected Parliament with one that is mostly appointed to keep power in the hands of the educated elite.

On Sunday, Somchai lifted a state of emergency that Samak imposed two weeks ago after a night of violent street clashes between government supporters and opponents. One man was killed and dozens were injured in the fighting.

Kuthep said the People's Power Party would meet later Monday to formalize the nomination, which was made public after a meeting of the party's 32-member executive committee.