BANGKOK, Sept 11: Thailand’s Samak Sundaravej accepted his party’s nomination on Thursday to return as prime minister, the official party spokesman said.

“The party chief declared his determination at the meeting to return to work for the country again,” chief spokesman Kudeb Saikrachang told reporters after Samak met officials at the headquarters of his ruling People Power Party.

“Tomorrow, the PPP and other coalition parties will elect Samak as the prime minister again,” Kudeb said, two days after a court removed him from office after finding him guilty of a conflict of interest.

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose protesters are occupying the seat of national government in Bangkok, said they would not accept Samak, who also faced opposition from within his own party ahead of Friday’s parliamentary vote.

A spokesman for a PPP faction claiming to have 70 MPs said they would abstain from the vote, saying Samak’s return would exacerbate weeks of political tension and damage the party.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that Samak, accused by the PAD of being a puppet for ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, broke the law in hosting cooking shows on commercial television while in office.

“The main principle is that Samak, who violated the constitution many times, should not become PM again,” Somsak Kosaisook, a PAD leader, said at Government House.

“No one in the PPP should become prime minister or a minister in the government,” he added, suggesting the PAD would continue with its action that has paralysed government and unsettled investors.

The court’s ruling against 73-year-old Samak removed him from office but did not ban him from returning.

The PPP, which has close to an outright majority in parliament with 225 of the 470 seats, has called the chamber into special session on Friday to vote for a new prime minister.—Reuters