BANGKOK: Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party has named 37-year-old Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as its candidate for prime minister, it announced on Thursday, a day after a court removed the incumbent prime minister from office in an ethics dispute.
“We have decided to nominate Paetongtarn Shinawatra,” party secretary Sorawong Thienthong said at a press conference in Bangkok.
On Friday, lawmakers in Parliament – where the Pheu Thai party leads a ruling coalition – will vote on whether to confirm Paetongtarn as prime minister.
“We are confident that the party and the coalition parties will help our country overcome Thailand’s economic crisis,” Paetongtarn said after the announcement.
On Wednesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on the grounds that he had violated regulations by appointing a cabinet minister with a criminal record, plunging the kingdom into new political uncertainty.
Pheu Thai – the electoral vehicle of former Manchester City owner Thaksin – is the largest member of an 11-party ruling coalition that includes royalist and pro-military groups that were once its bitter rivals.
Srettha is the party’s third prime minister to be removed from office by the Constitutional Court, leaving office after less than a year.
Thai politics has endured two decades of chronic instability marked by coups, street protests and court rulings, much of it fuelled by the military and pro-royalist establishment’s long-running struggle against progressive parties linked to their enemy, Thaksin.
The tycoon and former prime minister returned to Thailand from self-imposed exile last August after 15 years. That same day, Srettha seized power in an alliance with pro-military parties that had previously been staunch opponents of Thaksin and his supporters.
The timing seemed to indicate a truce in the long-standing feud as both sides sought to ward off the threat posed by the newer Move Forward Party (MFP), which won a majority of votes in last year’s elections.
Later, the formation of a government was prevented.
Paetongtarn was selected ahead of Pheu Thai star Chaikasem Nitisiri (75).
The move shows “Pheu Thai’s strategy to support the youth movement,” said political analyst Yuttaporn Issarachai. AFP.
However, he said it would be difficult to “break away from the conservative and military influence” that has dominated Thai politics for decades.
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