Coalition divided over vote to install chai as speaker

Sources from the Chart Thai and Puea Paendin parties, two of the six government parties, said the choice was not widely supported by the public, so some government MPs would not cast a vote for Chai.

"We're also upset by the fact that the vote was hastily moved to tomorrow so as to pressure coalition parties into supporting Chai. We can expect some MPs to abstain during the vote," a Chart Thai source said yesterday.

Banharn Silapa-archa, Chart Thai's leader and an MP for Suphan Buri, said he would not attend today's election as a gesture of opposing the government's tactics.

Chart Thai has 37 MPs while Puea Paendin has 24 in the 315-MP government in which the ruling People Power Party (PPP) controls 233 MPs.

Chai is a veteran politician and the father of Newin, a close ally of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who is banned from politics.

Yongyuth Thiyapairat, a PPP deputy leader, quit as speaker as he faced a court case involving election fraud.

Kuthep Saikrachang, spokesman for PPP, said the Chai nomination would sail through as 90 per cent of the government MPs were expected to support it.