PPP 'will rule'

PPP 'will rule'

People Power party is confident it can form a coalition government from the plurality it won in Sunday's election, the PPP secretary general said on Monday.

Surapong Suebwonglee that the PPP would attract enough smaller parties to reach 280 to 290 seats, enough for it to form a coalition government in the 480-seat lower house of parliament.

He said the PPP would not reveal the names of the parties, but would rather wait until the voting results are confirmed by the Election Commission (EC) after Jan 3.

At the moment, the PPP promise is just talk. There is heavy resistance from several influential circles to the idea of a PPP-led government.

The party is being sharply challenged by the second-place Democrat Party, which has the confidence of the political establishment.

The EC will issue yellow or red cards later which can disqualify some winning candidates on electoral cheating allegations, which might alter the parties' positions, said Surapong.

Current election results, which will change as red cards are issued, showed that the PPP won 232 seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democrat Party won 165 seats.

They were followed by Chart Thai Party with 37 seats and the Puea Pandin Party was at fourth place with 25 seats.

Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana took nine seats, Machimatipataya captured seven and Pracharaj currently has five seats.