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Thai new Cabinet sworn in before King

Published: 22/12/2008 05:00

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Thailand’s new cabinet led by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was sworn in in front of the King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Monday.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva leaves from the Government House after take a group photo of a new cabinet in Bangkok December 22, 2008. New Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva unveiled a cabinet on Saturday including several ministers criticised for lack of experience and a foreign minister closely tied to this year’s street protests.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Abhisit, the Democrat Party leader who was elected as Thailand’s 27th PM on Dec. 15 in a parliamentary voting session to replace the disqualified Somchai Wongsawat, led the other 35 cabinet members to take part in the oath-making ceremony in front of the King, which started on late Monday afternoon at Bangkok’s royal residence of Chitralada Palace.

In a short address to the new cabinet during the ceremony, the 81-year-old King urged the Abhisit cabinet to work to keep the country in peace, as “this is all Thais’ wish.”

Abhisit later told journalists that he would try to bring unity back to the people and restore Thais and foreigners’ confidence in Thailand but he stressed that the efforts need cooperation from all Thais.

Earlier before the ceremony, the new premier and ministers took group pictures at the Government House in central Bangkok, which had just been cleaned up and repaired after a three-month occupation by demonstrators of the People’s Alliance for Democracy(PAD).

The PAD opposed ousted former premier Thakshin Shinawatra and whoever they considered his “proxies” — the two previous forced-out governments by Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat since February, both led by the People Power Party (PPP).

The PPP was seen a reincarnation of the Thaksin-founded Thai Rak Thai Party, which was disbanded last year by the Constitutional Court also on electoral fraud charges.

The PAD started its efforts to topple the pro-Thaksin government by staging mass street rallies and demonstrations, after the PPP won the Dec. 23 general election to form a six-party coalition government.

The Constitutional Court disbanded the PPP and two smaller parties in the Somchai-led coalition government on Dec. 2 on electoral fraud charges and disqualified all executives of the three parties, including Somchai and some cabinet ministers, from electoral process for five years.

A new Puea Thai party was set up to shelter non-executive party members and picked a former national police chief Pracha Promnok as party leader and its candidate for the premiership. Pracha lost198:235 to Abhisit in the House voting. Puea Thai now stays as the opposition party in the House of Representatives, together with two other smaller parties.

Abhisit is expected to deliver his government’s policy speech to the Parliament on December 29. The first cabinet meeting will be held on Tuesday.

The Abhisit cabinet is comprised of 36 members, less than half of whom are from the Democrat Party, while the rest are from six other coalition partners.

The new cabinet has three Deputy PMs — Suthep Thuagsuban, Korbsak Sabhavasu, and Sanan Kachornprasart.

Former army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan is Defence Minister.

Kasit Promya, former Thai ambassador to the United States and anoted supporter of the PAD, was appointed as Foreign Minister.

The Interior Minister and Transport Minister posts were allocated to Chaovarat Chanweerakul and Sophon Saram, both members from the so-called “Friends of Newin” group (FON), a faction splintered from the now defunct PPP who are loyal to former Thaksin’s right-hand man and political strongman Newin Chidchob.

The turn-about of the FON ahead of the Dec. 2 House voting on new premier to support Democrat Party candidate Abhisit dealt a big blow to the Puea Thai party.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet

Update from: http://english.vietnamnet.vn//international/2008/12/820107/

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