Joe McConnell
Thailand’s parliament has chosen Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of billionaire tycoon and former leader Thaksin, as prime minister.
At 37, she will be the country’s youngest prime minister and the second woman to hold the position, after her aunt Yingluck.
His selection comes just two days after former PM Srettha Thavisin was sacked by a constitutional court. Both are from the Pheu Thai Party, which came in second in the 2023 election but has formed a governing coalition.
Ms Paetongtarn faces the daunting task of reviving Thailand’s struggling economy and staving off the military coups and judicial interventions that ousted four previous administrations led by her family.
Ms Paetongtarn, who received 319 votes to 145 on Friday, is the fourth member of the Shinawatra clan to become prime minister in the past two decades.
The other three, including his father Thaksin and aunt Yingluck, were deposed by military coups or constitutional court rulings.
On Wednesday, the same court fired Thavisin for appointing to his cabinet a former lawyer who had previously been jailed.
After being put forward as a candidate for prime minister, Ms Paetongtarn told reporters at Pheu Thai headquarters on Thursday that she admired Mr Srettha’s work and believed his dismissal was unfortunate.
After completing her studies at prestigious schools in Thailand and university in the UK, she spent several years working at the Shinawatra family’s Rende hotel group, where her husband is deputy director of investments.
She joined Pheu Thai in 2021 and was appointed party leader in October 2023.
Ms Paetongtarn’s appointment brings new energy to Thailand’s top leadership. Pheu Thai members may also be holding out hope that she can help revive the party’s political fortunes.
Mr Thaksin first became prime minister in 2001, but his second term ended abruptly after his government was ousted in a military coup in 2006. returned to Thailand after 15 years of exile last October, just hours before Mr Srettha was elected prime minister.
He was allowed to return under a grand bargain with his old conservative foes, who are now in coalition with Pheu Thai.
In June it was accused of insulting the monarchyHe is the highest-profile figure to be charged under Thailand’s notorious lèse-majesté law, used against political dissidents.
Wednesday’s ruling dismissing Mr Srettha was also widely interpreted as a warning to Mr Thaksin, who still dominates Pheu Thai, to rein in his ambitions.
Ms Yingluck won a landslide in the 2011 election, but she too was later disqualified by the courts and her government was overthrown in a second coup. She now lives in exile.
