BANGKOK, Thailand — A combative veteran politician representing the interests of a former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was chosen as premier yesterday, a move that could put him on a collision course with the military that ousted Mr. Thaksin in a 2006 coup.

Samak Sundaravej easily beat the Democrat Party candidate 310–163, taking a key step toward restoring democracy, but experts fear the election of a Thaksin supporter may further divide Thailand. Mr. Samak, 72, has made no secret that he is Mr. Thaksin’s proxy, saying in an interview: “I have to bring [Thaksin] back to the limelight. We will use the same policies.”

“It is likely to be a turbulent premiership ahead,” said Panithan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

Analysts say Mr. Samak’s political fortunes will wax or wane in line with those of Mr. Thaksin, who has vowed to return from exile in May to face a slew of corruption charges.

Mr. Samak has assembled a six-party coalition with about two-thirds of the 480 seats in the House. But he faces the suspicions of Mr. Thaksin’s powerful foes — the military that toppled him and the country’s elite, including elements associated with the country’s monarchy.

Mr. Samak has indicated a willingness to try to undo post-coup sanctions imposed on the former leader and his political machine. He takes office with a past as an ultra-right wing rabble-rouser, a continuing corruption probe, and a long-standing bent for acid-tongued confrontation.

But he’s also a wily survivor of four decades in the turbulent Thai political arena and remains popular with lower middle-class voters.

Many Samak supporters would be hard pressed to describe his policies, but fondly remember him for his TV cooking show called “Tasting and Complaining,” a mix of traditional Thai cooking and rants on Mr. Samak’s pet subjects.

“I don’t like Samak. He is rude, he fights with everyone and doesn’t have respect for anyone,” taxi driver Ekawat Santirat said. “But I know Thaksin wants him as prime minister. And I love Thaksin. He was good to us, and he did nothing wrong. Samak can bring him home.”

Mr. Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai Party was dissolved after his 2006 ouster, but former members formed the People’s Power Party, which named Mr. Samak as its leader last August.

The party won the most parliamentary seats in a December 2007 general election, topping the second-place Democrats, and Mr. Samak then assembled a six-party coalition to back his bid to form a government.

But he will have to keep his planned coalition in line, while tangling with an array of opponents — the opposition Democrat Party, a powerful military and pro-democracy activists who led the mass street protests which led to Mr. Thaksin’s downfall.

Judicial bodies, a partly appointed nonpartisan Senate and independent watchdogs, newly empowered after Mr. Thaksin’s crash, will be watching him closely.