Thailand's parliament voted on Tuesday to elect Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai party as the country's new prime minister, after a monthslong deadlock since the progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) secured the biggest number of seats in May's polls.

Srettha needed 375 votes in total from the country's combined upper and lower houses to secure the prime minister position.

However, it decided earlier in August to seek a new alliance excluding the MFP, whose candidate for prime minister was blocked at least twice.

Wowing voters with plans to reform the country's tough royal defamation laws and dismantle business monopolies, the MFP won the support of young and urban Thais weighed down by years of military rule.

Several other parties refused to support any government involving the MFP, forcing the highest claimant of seats back into the opposition.

Tuesday's scheduled vote came hours after former Prime Minister and Pheu Thai party founder Thaksin Shinawatra was sentenced by the Supreme Court to eight years of imprisonment.

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