Bangkok  - Thailand's Parliament opened an extraordinary session Monday to vote in a new prime minister after the last premier and much of the cabinet lost their posts in a court ruling.

The vote was expected to be close between the two nominated candidates, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Puea Paendin Party's leader, police General Pracha Promnok.

"It will be a close call," said Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior Democrat Party member.

Last minute jockeying to win support from members of Parliament has been intense, in keeping with Thailand's long history of "money politics."

Thai newspapers reported that lawmakers had been offered as much as 50 million baht (1.4 million dollars) to skip Monday's session to avoid voting for Abhisit.

About 400 "red shirts," or followers of Thailand's fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, gathered at Parliament Monday morning to put pressure on its members to vote for Pracha.

The Democrats, who have been in opposition since Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai party romped to victory on the back of a populist platform in the January 2001 general election, claimed to have won the support of four smaller political parties and a breakaway faction from the former People Power Party, which led the last government and came to power on a pro-Thaksin platform.

But the coalition lineup fell apart Sunday when Pracha - head of the Puea Paendin Party, which supposedly supported the Democrats - accepted a nomination to contest the premiership.

It is unclear how many members of Parliament Pracha actually controls within his own party, which holds 27 seats.

"The Puea Paendin is a hydra with many heads," Kraisak said. "The leader actually only controls four to five people."

Pracha claims to control at least 16 of his own members of Parliament, which might be enough to secure him the premiership with the backing of the Puea Thai, a reincarnation of the now defunct People Power Party, and the Phracharaj Party.

There are fears that if Pracha becomes the next prime minister, Thailand's political impasse would continue and the street protests that undermined the last government would be resumed.

The annti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) movement seized and shut down Bangkok's two airports from November 26 to December 3 in their successful bid to topple previous government.

The protest speeded up a Constitution Court ruling December 2 on the People Power Party, which ended in its dissolution and came with a five-year ban on its executives from politics, forcing premier Somchai Wongsawat to stop down with half his cabinet.

The PAD has promised to return to the streets if the next government is run by a Thaksin proxy.

The last government was headed by Somchai, Thaksin's brother-in-law. Thaksin, a former billionaire telecommunications tycoon, was prime minister from 2001 to September 2006 when he was ousted by a bloodless military coup.

He has been sentenced to two years in jail on a corruption charge and now lives in self-imposed exile but remains a central player in Thailand's political drama.

The PAD, which has the tacit support of the military and other elements of Thailand's so-called "political elite," is dedicated to preventing Thaksin and his cronies from returning to politics. (dpa)