When is winning 5 - 40 Parliament seats better than winning 165? In coalition governments, that can sometimes be the case.
The People's Power Party, the remnants of ousted PM Thaskin's Thai Love Thai party is forming a six party coalition to form the new government. The new government will have 315 of the 480 MP seats. In fact, the only party not a part of the coalition is the second place Democrats. The lawsuit that threatened to dissolve the PPP party was resolved in their favor, so they are forming a government.
Three of the parties in the coalition have less than 10 members each. These parties, however, will each get at least one cabinet position because they committed early to join the PPP's coalition. While the two medium parties waited to see what would come of the lawsuits against the PPP and the fraud charges against many PPP MP winners, these smaller parties agreed to join a government. Their support gave the PPP enough of a majority, absent a large number of MP disqualifications, to form the government. They astutely extracted a price for their allegiance, because once one of the medium sized parties signed on, the little ones would be much less necessary.
Interestingly, the Thai Chart Thai party, which appeared to be a solid ally of the Democrats also joined the alliance. Some say their leader may end up being Prime Minister in this government. That won't be decided until the Parliament convenes and votes. PPP leader and former Bangkok Mayor, Samak Sundaravej, is viewed by many as a hot head who doesn't have the right temperment to serve as PM. Another common belief that whoever the PM is, that he will have to have the approval of Thaskin, who many believe pull the strings on the PPP party.
Politics in Thailand is a lot like mid-western weather. If you don't like it, wait a few days and it might change.
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