Coalition parties choose nominees

Chart Thai Pattana Party has nominated Yukol Limlaemthong to be the next agriculture minister, while Chart Pattana’s Suwat Liptapanlop and Palang Chon’s Sonthaya Kunplome have each been nominated for both a deputy prime minister and a ministerial seat in the next Cabinet reshuffle, a source said.

Suwat will be both deputy prime minister and replace MR Pongsvas Svasti as industry minister. Sonthaya will be a deputy prime minister and also replace his wife Sukumol as culture minister in the Cabinet reshuffle proposal, according to a source from a coalition party who asked not to be named.

Since the end of the 111 former Thai Rak Thai executives’ political ban, coalition parties have discussed and negotiated Cabinet positions with former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the source said.

Thaksin agreed that Suwat and Sonthaya should get two seats each as they are key members of coalition parties, though they did not get the seats they wanted, the source said. Sonthaya, a former tourism and sports minister, wanted the seat back. But that quota now belongs to Chart Thai Pattana Party. Meanwhile, Suwat wanted the Energy seat his wife took in the Samak Sundaravej government. The seat is now in Pheu Thai Party’s quota and the portfolio must be led so that it is in line with the country’s economic picture, the source said.

Former permanent secretary of agriculture Yukol would replace Theera Wongsamut as agriculture and agricultural cooperatives minister, as Theera wants to have a rest after being in the post since the Abhisit Vejjajiva government.

The source said it was previously agreed that a Cabinet reshuffle would take place in August, but Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra prefers that it happen later to allow continuity of work and so that the new ministers start working in the 2013 fiscal year, which starts in October. She also feared a Cabinet reshuffle would cause more divisions among the factions of the Pheu Thai Party.

The coalition parties’ leaders, however, said that regardless of the reshuffle of Pheu Thai’s quota, they wanted the coalition parties’ seats shuffled first. Since the Yingluck administration took charge in August last year, there has been one Cabinet reshuffle, in January.