New Coalition Government to Take Shape This Week: Thai PM-ApparentNegotiations are under way and the new coalition government will take shape this week, Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire politician who apparently will become Thailand's next prime minister, said Monday.Thaksin, whose Thai Rak Thai Party won a landslide victory in the general election on Saturday, told reporters that he believed the formation of the new coalition would be concluded by January 11. "I believe we will know by this Thursday which parties will join in the new coalition," he said. It is likely that three parties will join the coalition, with about 300 of 500 lawmakers in the future House of the Representatives, the lower chamber, he added. Thaksin, however, declined to hint which parties would become his political partners, but said he was laying out strategies and seeking out appropriate cabinet members so that the new government could start to work and address the country's problems as soon as possible. Reports repeatedly said New Aspiration and Chart Thai Party are the potential allies of Thai Rak Thai. "Those who will be cabinet members will have to understand my policies well, and can also work well with me, as I will have a look in every ministry, and will put the Ministry of Finance as the center of economic ministries," he noted. Official counts so far have shown that Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party ("Thai Loves Thai") won 256 of the 500 seats in the next House, followed by 126 seats of the ruling Democrat Party, 39 seats of the Chart Thai Party, 33 seats of the New Aspiration Party and 29 seats of the Chat Pattana Party. |
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