BANGKOK, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — The Thai parliament kicked off a voting to elect the country’s new prime minister Wednesday morning, as deputy leader of People Power Party (PPP) and acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat is set to sail through.

The voting session in the House of Representatives convened at 9:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) as scheduled. Only 370 members of parliament in the House, out of a total 470, attended the session, but it hasmet a the 50-percent quorum to valify the proceedings and results.

Somchai Wongsawat, the candidate backed by the PPP and the other five coalition parties in the caretaker government, is expected to become the 26th prime minister, succeeding Samak Sundaravej, who was disqualified by as premier by a Constitutional Court verdict on Sept. 9, which found him in breach of the charter by hosting TV cooking shows while in office.

The House voting was postponed to Wednesday from last Friday after fractions of PPP, and the other smaller five coalition parties voiced opposition to the PPP’s earlier decision to reinstall disqualified Premier Sundaravej as prime minister. The refusal of a large number of MPs to attend the voting session led to a lack of quorum in the House, hence the postponement.

Somchai, as first deputy prime minister, was then appointed as acting premier to head the caretaker government.

The sole opposition Democrat Party, which held 164 seats in the House, has nominated its party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva for the premiership. 　

MADRID, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen won the16th stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race following a 186km ride between Ponferrada and Zamora on Tuesday.

Boonen, who has already won a stage of this year’s race, beat Italian Fillipo Pozzato and German rider Heinrich Haussler to the finish line, following a fast finish to what had been a very slow stage.

The riders in the race decided to ride the stage slower than usual as a protest to yesterday’s stage, where there was a hill in the closing stages that was not reflected in the race itinerary andwhich took them all by surprise.

The overall average speed of the stage was just 34km per hour, way below the usual average for a race of these characteristics, which would be comfortably over 40km per hour.

Indeed it took the riders an hour to complete the first 15km of the day.

As a result, there is no change to the overall standing, where Spaniard Alberto Contador still has a lead of over a minute over American Levi Leipheimer, who also rides for his Astana team.

Contador, who didn’t ride this summer’s Tour of France, is aiming to win the three-week Vuelta for the first time in his career to add to the Tour of France he won in 2007 and the Giro de Italia (Tour of Italy) that he won this May.

Wednesday’s stage between Zamoraand Valladolid and Thursday’s ride between Valladolid and Las Rozas (just north of Madrid) are both relatively flat stages and unlikely to produce any changes among the race leaders.

The only chance either Leipheimer or third placed Carlos Sastre have therefore of beating Contador will be in Friday’s mountain stage between Las Rozas and Segovia or in the final time trial, which is up the 1,870m high Puerto de Navacerrada.

BRUSSELS, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven suffered a humiliating 0-3 home defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid in a UEFA Champions League Group D match Tuesday night.

Although PSV head coach Huub Stevens had been confident prior to the encounter, the first group match for both sides, the visitors proved far too strong for the home side’s defense.

At the 9th minute, Sergio Aguero, assisted by Luis Garcia with across, right footed a shot from very close range to the center of the goal, opening the score for the visitors.

At the 36th minute, Aguero scored his second goal of the night, this time assisted by Florent Sinama-Pongolle with a cross. He left footed the shot from the center of the box to the high center of the goal.

In the second half, Atletico continued to pressure on PSV, forcing several corner kicks at the opening stage.

At the 54th minute, Maniche, assisted by Luis Garcia, right footed a shot to the center of the goal, sealing victory for Atletico.

With the lopsided defeat, PSV, which failed to advance to the knock-out stages in last season’s Champions League campaign, have again found themselves in a difficult position.

Liverpool and Olympique de Marseille are the other two teams in Group D.