On January 14, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has accepted an invitation of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) to deliver a keynote address to FCCT’s members and guests at a gathering at the Grand Ballroom, Intercontinental Bangkok.
Here is the full text of his address entitled “Meeting the Challenges of Change”:
 

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 
It’s a great pleasure for me to be back here again in this forum. I suppose you want to make it as an annual forum. I wondered about that, I actually asked Khun Panitan (Dr. …

The newly formed New Politics Party (NPSP) yesterday picked Sondhi Limthongkul, a core leader of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), as its first leader during the general meeting in Bangkok.
Media mogul Sondhi, the founder of Manager Media Group, received a total of 1,741 votes in the non-contested election to lead the NPSP which has been formed in early June this year by PAD leaders and members.
According to the party’s bylaws, Sondhi later hand-picked Somsak Kosaisuk as his deputy, Suriyasai Katasila as the party’s secretary-general and ten other persons, including …

PAD leaders at Thammasat University
 

Members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yesterday voiced their support for the establishment of a political party in a bid to establish the so-called “New Politics” in Thailand.
Several ten thousands of PAD members yesterday rallied at the football stadium of Thammasat University’s Rangsit Campus to mark the first anniversary of last year’s 193-day-long protest against the attempts by the then governments to amend the kingdom’s constitution and to dissolve a special agency investigating alleged corruption cases against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and five Cabinet members yesterday comfortably won in a no-confidence vote after two-day censure debate in the parliament.
Prime Minister Abhisit, Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phataraprasit, Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul and Deputy Interior Minister Boonjong Wongtrairat were accused of malfeasance and violation of the Constitution by the opposition led by Puea Thai Party.
Out of 449 members of the House of Representatives, Abhisit, as well as Korn, Pradit, Chavarat and Boonjong, received 246 votes of confidence each while Kasit, …

Ruling Democrat Party and its coalition partners won 20 out of 29 parliamentary seats in the by-election in 22 provinces throughout Thailand yesterday.
Democrat Party candidates won a total of seven seats, one each in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom Province, Ratchaburi Province, Lamphun Province, Samut Prakarn Province, Saraburi Province and Singburi Province. Its partners Chart Thai Pattana Party got ten seats while Puea Pandin Party  three seats.
Meanwhile, two opposition parties, Puea Thai Party and Pracharaj Party, won five and four seats respectively.
However, one of the successful candidate of Pracharaj Party was …

Bangkok City Hall
More than 900,000 eligible voters in Bangkok today elected M.R.Sukhumbhand Paribatra of Democrat Party to become the governor of Thailand’s capital city.
The Bangkok governor election was organised by the Election Commission (EC) to replace Apirak Kosayodhin, also from Democrat Party, whom had been re-elected for his second four-year term last October but decided to resign a month later after the National Counter Corruption Commission announced to press charges against Apirak and 10 other persons implicated in alleged irregularities in Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s fire truck and boat purchase scheme.
According …