Bangkok- Thailand's largest political party on Thursday nominated ousted prime minister Samak Sundaravej to retake the premiership after he was sacked just days ago by a court ruling.

Samak, 73, has accepted the nomination, meaning that the end of Thailand's political crisis is nowhere in sight, according to analysts.

People Power Party (PPP), which holds 223 of the 480 seats in the lower house, announced that it had nominated Samak to resume the premiership even though the Constitution Court on Tuesday found him guilty of violating the charter by moonlighting as a TV cooking show host after he had been appointed prime minister on February
6.

Despite the ruling, which forced Samak to resign the premiership, the court did not deprive Samak of his member of parliament status, thus allowing him to be renamed prime minister if the majority of elected MPs vote for him.

"In principle, as the largest political party we have the right to nominate the next prime minister," said PPP executive Surapong Suebwonglee, who is finance minister.

Samak has apparently accepted.

"He is willing to accept," said PPP deputy spokesman Sutin Klangsaeng, after a group of PPP politicians called on Samak at his Bangkok home.

Parliament will vote on Friday on whether to accept Samak as prime minister again.

Meanwhile, the PPP's five coalition parties agreed to stay together to form the next government, implying that they would support the lead party's nominee for prime minister.

The re-election of Samak as prime minister is unlikely to solve Thailand's current political crisis.

His premiership could be cut short on September 25 when the Appeal Court will decided whether or not to uphold a lower court guilty verdict against Samak in a libel case.

The reappointment of Samak would also outrage the thousands of followers of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who seized Government House on August 26 and have refused to leave until Samak resigned.

But for the PPP, a party with close ties to ousted and currently in exile former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Samak is one of the few candidates capable of carrying on the fight against the PAD, analysts said.

"Samak is the only one among them that has enough stature to go up against the PAD," said political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulongkorn University.

"That stature is based on his good working relationship with the military and the second is his access to the king," he said.

The PAD, a loose coalition of reactionary groups adamantly opposed to Thaksin and his political supporters, bills itself as pro-monarchy.

The movement was instrumental in toppling Thaksin, Thailand's populist premier who dominated Thai politics between 2001 to 2006. Thaksin was ousted by a military coup on September 19, 2006, and is currently living in exile in London with his wife Pojaman who faces a three-year jail sentence in Thailand on tax evasion charges. (dpa)