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Published on February 18, 2008

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will first declare the government's policies to Parliament. Then the MPs and NLA members, acting as senators, will scrutinise the policies.

Many populist policies adopted by the Thaksin Shinawatra government are among the government's policies.

The session will last for three days.

Secretaries named on Wednesday

The Cabinet will meet to appoint ministers' secretaries and advisers on Wednesday. Its scheduled weekly meeting is being postponed from tomorrow because of the parliamentary session on government policies.

Cabinet secretary-general Surachai Phuprasertsaid said the meeting would take only a short time.

EC awaits list of selected senators

The senator selection committee is scheduled to submit the names of 74 selected senators to the Election Commission today.

The EC is expected to approve and announce the names tomorrow. The names will be submitted for royal endorsement later.

The selected senators, the first group under the 2007 Constitution, will serve for three years, unlike the 76 elected senators, who will serve for six years.

EC to decide Yongyuth fate tomorrow

The EC is likely to meet tomorrow to decide on the electoral-fraud case against House Speaker Yongyuth Tiyapairat, who is also People Power Party's deputy leader.

Yongyuth issued a statement denying his involvement in electoral fraud and claiming he was a victim of a frame-up. However, EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said the EC would not summon Yongyuth for further investigation but only check whether there were any holes that needed to be filled.

Election commissioner Prapun Naigowit said the EC's investigative panel was currently writing a report on its probe to submit this week.

The EC will seek a Supreme Court ruling if the accusation that Yongyuth committed electoral fraud has grounds.

If Yongyuth is convicted by the court, another investigation will probe whether his party was involved in his conduct. If the party is also found guilty, it could be dissolved by the Constitution Court.

The Nation