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Thai PM, ministers easily survive censure vote
Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:28am EDT
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By Kittipong Soonprasert
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva easily survived a no-confidence vote on Saturday that analysts said may strengthen his shaky coalition government as it tackles an economy on the brink of recession.
In the latest twist in Thailand's three-year old political crisis, the main opposition Puea Thai Party, stacked with allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra ousted in a 2006 coup, had accused Abhisit and five of his ministers of financial shenanigans and abuses of power.
The allegations were denied by Abhisit and the accused ministers, who included Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, and Saturday's vote passed largely along party lines.
"As Parliament has now showed, they are confident in us and we will move on," said Abhisit, a 44-year-old Oxford graduate.
Kasit, who was targeted by the opposition for backing the occupation of Bangkok's airports last year by anti-Thaksin demonstrators, received fewer votes than his cabinet colleagues, but Abhisit said he would remain in cabinet.
Analysts said the censure motions never seriously threatened Abhisit's Democrat-led coalition cobbled together with a rump of former Thaksin allies led by Newin Chidchob, once a close confidante of the now exiled billionaire telecoms tycoon.
"It was a waste of time for the opposition," political analyst Sukhum Nualskul told Reuters.
However, the government will face a new challenge in the streets of Bangkok next week.
Members of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) have vowed to rally outside Abhisit's offices at Government House from March 26 in a bid to force him to resign.
Previous protests by the UDD "red shirts" have been small compared to the mass rallies and occupations of government buildings and Bangkok's airports by the yellow-clad People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) against a pro-Thaksin government last year. The courts forced out that government and Abhisit won a parliamentary vote in December.
MOMENTUM
At the time, few expected his government to last long, but analysts say Abhisit has defied expectations.
"Mr. Abhisit now has the upper hand," Chulalongkorn University political science lecturer Thitinan Pongsudhirak wrote in the Bangkok Post on Friday.
He said the government could "build on its nascent momentum for a lasting term," but its longevity will depend on managing a fractious coalition and reviving an economy facing a sharp fall in exports due to the global economic downturn.
If political tensions worsen, analysts say it could distract Abhisit and his ministers from tending to an economy that suffered its worst contraction on record in the final quarter of 2008 and is likely to enter recession this year. Continued...
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