Thaksin pushes Yingluck for PM

[Coss]

Array of cohorts in line for Puea Thai list spots.

 

Yingluck Shinawatra is expected to be named the Puea Thai Party's No.1 party-list candidate, giving her an opportunity to become the country's first female prime minister.

 

Yingluck: Has ‘strong party support’

A Puea Thai source yesterday said the party's key figures had travelled to meet former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the party's main supporter and de facto leader, in Dubai and they had agreed to put Ms Yingluck, Thaksin's youngest sister, as No.1 on the party list and name her as a candidate for the premiership.

 

The source said Thaksin was pushing for Ms Yingluck as Puea Thai's prime ministerial candidate. However, the source said the candidacy for prime minister is not limited to Ms Yingluck. Candidate numbers 2-10 on the party list also stand an equal chance of being nominated for the premiership if they prove more qualified than Ms Yingluck, the source said.

 

Key figures expected to be placed highly on Puea Thai's party list include Bannapot Damapong, an adopted brother of Thaksin's ex-wife Potjaman na Pombejra, and Boonklee Plangsiri, the group chairman of Shin Corporation, the source said.

 

However, the source said the party has to wait for confirmation from Mr Boonklee. If Mr Boonklee refuses to run in the election, the party may approach Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisarn, vice chairman of Shin Corporation, to stand as party list candidate. The two are considered right-hand men to Thaksin in terms of business.

 

The source said the party's financiers were also sending their representatives to register as party-list candidates.

 

The names of all party-list candidates will be finalised after House dissolution.

 

The source said Thaksin had not yet decided who would be named as party list candidates 2-5.

 

Those qualified for positions 2-5 on the party list are equally important, the source said, adding that Thaksin suggested they be chosen by drawing lots.

 

However, the source said the party will use the principle of political seniority to decide who will get which position in the party list.

 

The source said Puea Thai has also prepared a separate list of MPs from both the constituency system and the list system who will be named as cabinet ministers and cabinet secretary if the party wins the election.

 

They include Wiroon Techapaiboon, Santi Prompat, Apiwan Wiriyachai, Witthaya Buranasiri, Wicharn Meechainant, Surapong Towijakchaikul, Worawat Uea-apinyakul and Supol Fong-ngam. There are also non-MPs on the list of cabinet ministers. These include Olarn Chaipravat, Pichai Naripthaphan and Pol Lt-Gen Chat Kuldilok.

 

The source said almost 100 members of the red shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship had been named as party candidates to run in the election.

 

But after checking their qualifications, the party had found many of them had been disenfranchised and were not eligible to run in the election because they had failed to exercise their voting rights in the most recent local government elections.

 

Key red shirts such as Jatuporn Prompan and Nattawut Saikua are expected to be ranked between 11 and 20 on the list system, while Korkaew Pikulthong, another key red shirt figure, is expected to be ranked lower than No.20, the source said.

 

The source said while Thaksin was pushing for Ms Yingluck to be Puea Thai's prime ministerial candidate, the former premier was concerned that some MPs, particularly those in a faction led by list MP Mingkwan Saengsuwan - another possibility for prime minister - might not support Ms Yingluck.

 

Thaksin, therefore, had ordered Puea Thai MPs who will run in the election to sign resignation letters in advance as a bargaining chip to ensure they will vote for Ms Yingluck to be prime minister after the election, the source said.

 

 

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[ranma500]

 

 

Thaksin, therefore, had ordered Puea Thai MPs who will run in the election to sign resignation letters in advance as a bargaining chip to ensure they will vote for Ms Yingluck to be prime minister after the election, the source said.

 

I have the actual transcript of his speech at the meeting:

 

"I don't trust any of you. I know what you're like. You come here in your red shirts telling me how much you love me, what a handsome square-headed hunk I am, how lovely your AIS service is, just so I'll give you lots of money and make you Prime Minister.

But I know what you're thinking.

As soon as I turn my back, you're going to stab me in it. You'll start to think that you can make your own decisions, appoint your own ministers, and even... make policy.

(Gasps from the listeners)

You remember when I made that box, like the one in Charlie's Angels, so I could talk Samak through his day? What did he do? Spend all his time making fucking cooking shows?

Yes, I had high hopes for Mingkwan. There was something about his name that made me think of Imperial stormtroopers and myself playing the Emperor, but I gave him his chance, and look what happened,

I let him run the censure debate against Abhishit (meeting dissolves into laughter for around five minutes)

We gave him all the material he needed. I told him about Abhishit's (ha ha ha) fetish for spanking and buggery, which I heard about from Boris when he got pissed at the Olympics. I told him that nobody should lead Thailand who was born in another country. But for some reason, people got rather worried about raising that issue. I don't know why.

 

Anyway, Mingkwan sucked.

So... who's left?

I mean, I tried to put some of those farmery type blokes in jobs, but they just stank out the place with their pla ra, and then it turned out none of them had ever voted in their lives and weren't even eligible.

 

No. That's it.

 

There's only one person in the world who I can truly, absolutely trust... one person who I adore more than anyone else in the world, and... well, let's face it, she is pretty hot isn't she?

(cheers, hoots, wolfwhistles, and a couple of ribald comments from the listeners)

My dear sister.

As I was telling her last night before we put down our books and went to sleep, she is the only person who I can trust to be able to control absolutely and totally, at least until the day when they can really make some sort of mini-me like in that film about Dr. Evil.

 

So that's it!

 

The new cabinet will be my sister, my brother in law, my other brother-in-law, my adopted first cousin, my two little nieces (will somebody ask Chuwit for them back) and my auntie's next-door neighbor.

 

But thank you all for coming.

I'd like you all to raise your champagne glasses and let's make a toast:

"We shall help the poor of Thailand!"

 

 

[Flashermac]

Chalerm Yoobamgrung is either resigning or has resigned from Parliament in disgust. He held things together for Takky, but now has been completely cut out of everything by Than Phu Nam. Chalerm says he wants nothing more to do with the Phuea Thaksin party.

 

Takky has announced that if his party wins the election, he will be its economic advisor from afar.

 

This is what "true democracy" means: Government of the Shinawatras, by the Shinawatras and for the Shinawatras.

 

Ironically, my taxi driver this morning said to me, "I'm from Issan, but I don't like the red shirts. They are violent, care nothing for the rights of other people and think only of themselves." Is Takky's magical power finally wearing off?