PHOTO: Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews. Uttama Savanayana, leader of Thailand's Palang Pracharat Party, (center) joins with leaders of 11 parties vowing to form a coalition to establish new government, May 13, 2019.
Palang Pracharat Party (PPP), which vows to support Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha’s bid to retain power, joined 11 smaller parties to announce an alliance to overcome the opposition led by the Pheu Thai Party. This gives them 11 more seats, giving PPP the 376 seats needed to form a government if all 250 senators back the alliance later this month as expected.
“We are confident in and we reiterate that we will vote for Prayuth to be prime minister,” Sampan Lertnuwat, leader of Polamuang Thai Party, told reporters in Bangkok. “We, 11 parties with 11 seats, want to see the new government take shape at the soonest possible time.”
Prayuth assumed the role of prime minister after leading a military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014. Pheu Thai Party supports Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, whose government was toppled in a similar coup in 2006.
The Election Commission (EC) last week officially endorsed results for 349 constituencies and 149 party-list seats. 350 constituency parliamentarians won their seats in the March 24 elections while 150 party list seats were filled by the election commission using a mathematical formula based on the total vote count. One seat each remains open in both categories because a candidate was disqualified, forcing a revote later this month.
Pheu Tai won 136 seats outright while PPP picked up 115 through a combination of constituency election and party list. Both must seek partners to achieve a majority in parliament. Other parties holding large numbers of seats include Future Forward Party, 80, the Democrat Party, 52, and the Bhumjaithai Party, 51, while 22 other parties also picked up seats.
The 350 elected and 150 party-list members of the lower house of parliament, as well as 250 junta-handpicked senators, are expected to select the next prime minister sometime around May 27, according to observers. To form a new government, a party needs support of 376 members, one more than half of the 750 legislators.
PHOTO: APP. National Assembly of Pakistan.
The National Assembly on Monday unanimously passed the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill, formalizing an increase in the number of seats for the erstwhile Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the National Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
The bill was passed with 288 votes after speeches from the representatives of all the parliamentary parties. Prime Minister Imran Khan also attended the session and lauded the National Assembly for the show of unity.
The bill, moved by Religious Affairs Minister Noorul Haq Qadri and Member of National Assembly (MNA) Mohsin Dawar, amended Article 51 and Article 106 of the Constitution, to increase the seats for the newly-merged tribal districts to 12 in the National Assembly and to 24 in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly.
Speaking on the bill, Dawar said that the state was responsible for protecting rights of all of its citizens and giving them true representation in all walks of life, while Qadri appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan for raising voice for rights of the people of former Fata.
The current allocation of the general seats made on the basis of provisional results of the population census 2017 did not include internally-displaced persons in the population of erstwhile Fata, Dawar told the house. “The current enhancement in the seats will remain effective till the next census,” he added.
Qadri told lawmakers that the people of tribal areas faced immense difficulties and because of displacement, they were living like migrants in different areas of Pakistan. The minister thanked the opposition parties for their across-the-board support for the legislation and expressed hope that consensus among parties would continue on other national issues.
Speaker Asad Qaiser congratulated the members and the nation on the passage of the constitutional amendment bill.
PHOTO: Antonios Gkildakis/CNA. Speaker of House of Representatives of Cyprus, Demetris Syllouris (left) with Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic Andrei Danko (right) on May 13, 2019.
President of the House of Representatives Demetris Syllouris visited Slovakia on a two-day official visit from May 12, 2019 at the invitation of Andrej Danko, the Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic.
During the visit, Speaker Syllouris highlighted the common principles and values the two countries share, while expressing common willingness to further strengthen bilateral cooperation. He also referred to the Cyprus problem and Turkish activities in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while addressing the 18-year long presence of the Slovak contingent in the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Speaker Danko replied that Turkey’s occupation of the northern part of Cyprus has no place in the 21st century, adding that the Cyprus problem should have been solved a long time ago. He also said that no one in his country questions the importance of the Slovak contingent in the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
The two speakers inaugurated a photo exhibition at the parliament building to honor the Slovak contingent of UNFICYP.
Speaker Syllouris also met with Slovakian Defense Minister Peter Gajdos, Slovakian State of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and European Affairs Lukas Parizek.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
