Democrats undecided on choice of allies

Senior Democrat politician Thaworn Senneam, who won the MP seat from Songkhla, said the Democrats should join the coalition led by the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat.
“It won the most votes – more than 7.9 million,” he noted, before adding the final decision will be made by the party’s new executive board. 
“I believe the [new] party executives will display ‘good etiquette’ when making decisions on important matters involving the party,” he said. 
Thaworn met with some 30 fellow Democrats – both winners and losers in Sunday’s election – at a Bangkok hotel yesterday. The meeting was held to discuss the possible reasons why the party won fewer seats than usual in its traditional strongholds of Bangkok and South. 
Those present at the meeting also agreed that the decision on who the party will be joining should be made by the new party executives and the winning Democrat candidates, Thaworn said.
However, deputy party spokesman Chao Meekhuat urged the party to respect the over-3 million people who voted for the Democrats last Sunday. He said, it was because of these voters that |the Democrats managed to win |more than 50 seats in the Lower House. 
“The party should base its decision on the policy platform of ‘not supporting the succession of dictatorship and corrupt people’,” he said, adding that the promises made during campaigning should also be taken into consideration.
Chao, however, said it was too early to form a new coalition, pointing out that the Election Commission (EC) has yet to release the final results and there is still a possibility of by-elections in some constituencies as the EC is investigating complaints of fraud, Chao said. 
He also noted that the EC plans to announce 95 per cent of the election result by May 9, which is still over a month away.