Thai legislature holds first meeting, elects prez

Thailand's military-appointed Legislative Assembly today met for the first time where the lawmakers unanimously elected former Supreme Court judge Pornpetch Wichitcholchai as the assembly president.
The 200-member Assembly met for a 15-minute inaugural ceremony presided over by the Crown Prince.
Surachai Liangboonlertchai, former deputy Senate speaker, was elected first vice president and Pirasak Porjit, another former deputy Senate speaker, was voted as second vice president.
All the three were unchallenged since they were the only persons nominated for their respective positions.
The election comes as another step for the country's slow return to electoral democracy after over two months under the junta's rule.

"The NLA consists of men of virtue who were carefully screened. An assembly without noble men is not a parliament. I'd therefore like to call this assembly the parliament of virtuous men," said 89-year-old Somporn Thepsittha, the most senior assembly member who was acting NLA president during the session.

Pornphet, 65, was a judge in the rubber saplings case of the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Persons Holding Political Positions in which 44 politicians and civil servants had been acquitted of a corruption charge, the Bangkok Post reported.
He was also the presiding judge of a case in which former premier Thaksin Shinawatra had been found guilty of abusing his position as prime minister to benefit his company Shin Corp.

The Assembly was appointed by the military government and over half of the lawmakers hold military ranks.
The Assembly will nominate the interim prime minister, who will then choose Cabinet members.
Since the bloodless coup in May, the military government has been the sole authority for all matters regarding the state.
Before that, Thailand had been without a parliament since it was dissolved last year, when former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra had stepped down.
A number of issues are expected to be discussed in the coming weeks, including the 2015 budget as well as the appointment of the National Reform Council tasked with overhauling Thailand's legal system.