Thai Parliament elects first female prime minister

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Thai Parliament elects first female prime minister

2011-08-06 09:15:15 GMT+7 (ICT)

BANGKOK (BNO NEWS) -- Pheu Thai Party Member of Parliament Yingluck Shinawatra was elected Thailand's first female prime minister by a majority vote in the House of Representatives on Friday morning, local media reported.

A total of 296 members of Parliament voted in support of Yingluck while three Democrat members voted against her. There were 197 abstentions.

Yingluck Shinawatra, a top-party list Pheu Thai Member of Parliament and youngest sister of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, became Thailand's 28th Prime Minister and the first female to occupy the position.

The vote in the House of Representatives came a month after the Pheu Thai party won a convincing majority in the July 3 election and formed a six-party coalition controlling 300 seats in the 500-seat House.

When the agenda moved to the election of the prime minister, Pheu Thai Member of Parliament Sanoh Thienthong proposed Yingluck for the position. She was the only candidate since the opposition did not nominate a candidate for the job. Her nomination was supported by 294 members of the House.

House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond earlier said before the House that he would seek royal endorsement for the newly-elected prime minister once the voting was completed. Upon receiving King Bhumibol Adulyadej's royal endorsement, Yingluck will officially assume the position and be authorized to present a cabinet line-up for royal approval. Until then, she remains prime minister-elect.

Yingluck will face an uphill task to steer the country out of years of deep-rooted divide and revitalize its economy amid the financial situation in the Untied States and Europe. Earlier she also pledged to restore national reconciliation and unity.

About 100 supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), commonly known as "Red Shirts" who remain loyal to deposed Prime Minister Thaksin, gathered outside the parliament building to show their support for Yingluck.

Thaksin, deposed in a 2006 coup, is barred from politics and lives in exile in Dubai to avoid having to serve a two-year prison term after being found guilty for violating Thailand's conflict of interest law, a conviction that he says is politically motivated.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-08-06

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