THAILAND'S main opposition party says it plans to form a new government with the help of defectors from the ruling coalition, a move certain to appease an anti-government group that recently paralysed the capital, shutting down its main international airport for a week.
The opposition Democrat Party announced it had mustered the backing of 260 MPs in the 400-seat lower house, allowing it to form a government with Oxford-educated party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva as the new prime minister.
But the party's apparen
t triumph, managed during a still chaotic situation the day after Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport reopened, will not be sealed until Parliament meets within the next 30 days to endorse Abhisit and the five-party coalition behind him. The former ruling party said it would not give up the fight.
The Democrat party is supported by the People's Alliance for Democracy, an activist group that headed mass demonstrations against several recent governments led by exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his allies. The protests culminated in a week-long siege of the capital's two airports.
The Democrats cobbled their coalition together against a sombre backdrop: Thailand's revered 81-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, regarded as a cornerstone of stability, is ill. It was feared that if the ruling coalition had selected a new prime minister close to Thaksin, that could again ignite mass protests.
But for now it appears the opposition has the upper hand. Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban said negotiations with other parties had been "the smoothest discussion" he has ever had because everyone realised the country's stability was at stake.
"This was the hardest decision we have made, but the country needs to move forward. We have to think of the country's survival and so we apologise to our MP friends and the people who support us, but we can't work with them anymore," said Boonjong Wongtrairat, a representative of a faction of 37 MPs who defected from the government camp and its leading Phuea Thai Party.
"Things are not final yet. Right now, it's a fight between the anti-democracy group and pro-democracy group. The situation is quite clear and we can't accept this," said Phuea Thai Party member Worawat Ua-apinyakul.
The Democrats were expected to face problems if they form a new government amid Thailand's polarised political arena.
Sombat Chanthonwong, a political science professor at Bangkok's Thammasat University, said many would find it difficult to accept Abhisit as the new prime minister because he did not emerge from an electoral contest.
"How can we have a prime minister who doesn't come from a democratic process? I don't get it," he said.
British-born Abhisit, 44, is a sophisticated politician but critics say he is out of touch with ordinary people, particularly the rural majority, and lacks charisma. His party's supporters include Bangkok's middle class, influential military figures and foreign investors who see him as a stabilising force.
Thaksin is popular among the rural masses, reflecting the deep divide between the urban elite and the country's poor.
The political developments came as the country's main international airport was being restored, although it could be at least a month before traffic is back to normal.
Suvarnabhumi International Airport officially reopened on Friday following a siege that trapped more than 300,000 travellers. The alliance's occupation of Bangkok's two airports dealt a heavy blow to Thailand's tourism-dependent economy.
The palace said yesterday that the condition of the king, who marked his 81st birthday on Friday, had improved and his inflamed throat and fever had subsided.
The monarch has historically been Thailand's sole unifying figure in times of crisis.
