Thai PM, Interior Minister survive censure debate

BANGKOK, November 28 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan survived no-confidence votes in the House of Representatives on Thursday morning. Members of the Parliament (MPs) showed confidence in Premier Yingluck, who is also Thai Defence Minister concurrently, with the majority vote of 297:134, two abstentions and five no votes. The MPs in the Lower Thai House also showed their support to the interior minister with the majority vote of 296:135, four abstentions and four no votes. During the two-day censure debate lodged by Thailand's main opposition Democrat Party, set from November 26-27, Democrats focused on the government-sponsored rice-pledging scheme and the water management programme worth 350 billion baht in their attacks against the prime minister, charging that both programmes were tainted with corruption. The over-two-year Yingluck administration is, meanwhile, facing street demonstrations in both Bangkok and other provincial areas, as the demonstrators vow to oust her government, accusing her administration of corruption and trying to whitewash her elder brother, exiled fugitive-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. (TNA)