Wednesday, February 10, 2010

November 24, 2009 11:51 AM

Ex-Thai Premier Samak Dies

By D.Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- Former Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, one of Thailand's most colourful politicians who lost his premiership because of his passion for cooking, died today at the age of 74.

The Kingdom's 25th prime minister died at the Bumrungrad Hospital this morning after battling liver cancer the past several months.

The former Bangkok governor and a celebrity chef with his own TV shows, had also been a Cabinet minister in the 1970s, but shot to prominence in 2007 when he agreed to become leader of the People's Power Party (PPP).

The PPP was established by supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after their Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved by Thailand's Constitution Court for election fraud.

Samak, accused of being a proxy of Thaksin who was ousted in the Sept 2006 military coup, led the party to win the December 2007 general election and became Thailand's 25th prime minister.

But his tenure was met with strong resistance from anti-Thaksin groups, especially the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) which held massive street rallies.

In 2008, the PAD seized the Government House, forcing Samak to operate from the military headquarters.

But it was the court that booted him out when the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for him to continue his television cooking programmes while being prime minister, and disqualified him.

Thaksin's brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat replaced him, but the PAD went further by closing down Bangkok's two major airports on Nov 26, 2008, and he and PPP were disqualified a week later on another election fraud charge.

-- BERNAMA

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