Thai Parliament Votes For New PM Monday -Democrats

A vote is needed because Somchai Wongsawat was forced to step down as prime minister last week.

Thailand's parliament will elect a new prime minister on Dec. 15, a Democrat Party official said on Thursday, as both the main party in the outgoing government and the Democrats, the main opposition, claimed they could win.

"The king has approved the request and the House Speaker has set a date to vote for a new prime minister on December 15 at 0930 (0230 GMT)," Democrat Secretary-General Suthep Thaugsuban told Reuters.

A vote is needed because Somchai Wongsawat was forced to step down as prime minister last week when his party and two others in the ruling coalition were disbanded by the courts for electoral fraud in a general election a year ago.

Somchai and several ministers have been banned from politics for five years but other lawmakers have simply transferred to new "shell" parties.

The Democrat Party has enough support from four small partners in the previous six-party coalition to ensure that its leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, becomes prime minister, Suthep said.

The Democrats and their new allies claim to have 260 votes in the 480-seat parliament.

Puea Thai, the new name for the biggest party in the old coalition, has said it still has enough support to cobble together a coalition, although some of its own members seem to have defected.

The prospect of a new government kept the stock market in the black on Thursday, following a period of turbulence during which anti-government protesters blockaded Bangkok's airports for a week until Dec. 3., stranding hundreds of thousands of tourists.

Puea Thai is the latest incarnation of a party grouping allies of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted as prime minister by the military in a September 2006 coup and now lives in exile.

He has been at the heart of Thailand's three-year political crisis, with Bangkok's royal and military elites pitted against Thaksin and his allies, who won the December 2007 election to end 15 months of army-backed government.