Banharn remains non-committal

"I have nothing new to report as I went to be around 2 or 3 am last night and woke up 10 am," he said, indicating there is no new development on the coalition formation.

Banharn said he anticipated that the coalition negotiations might last more than two weeks.

He said he had not been approached by People Power Party leader Samak Sundaravej to form an alliance.

He sidestepped a direct question on whether he could work with Samak by telling reporters to check the meeting of parties before the April 2 election last year.

Because of the turmoil, the opposition alliance of Chart Thai, Democrat and Mahachon invited the then ruling Thai Rak Thai Party to ratify a pledge to amend the charter after the voting. The ruling party refused and organised a meeting of its own, triggering the election boycott.

The Chart Thai leader said he was grateful for votes cast for his party. He was satisfied with the outcome as his party won about 40 House seats when the projection was for about 30 seats.

The Nation