August 16, 2024
BANGKOK – Thailand’s House of Representatives on Aug 16 elected Pheu Thai Party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra as the country’s new prime minister.
Ms Paetongtarn, 37, assumed the post two days after another Pheu Thai candidate, Mr Srettha Thavisin, was dismissed from the premiership by the Constitutional Court for the wrongful appointment of a Cabinet minister.
Mr Srettha’s dismissal, after barely one year in office, also meant that his entire Cabinet would need to vacate their posts after a new line-up is selected by Ms Paetongtarn.
The 11-party governing coalition led by Pheu Thai agreed to support Ms Paetongtarn’s bid for premiership on the eve of the parliamentary vote, following urgent negotiations.
Ms Paetongtarn is the third member of the influential Shinawatra clan to take the top job, after her father Thaksin and her aunt Yingluck.
Mr Thaksin, a business tycoon, retains strong support within Pheu Thai. Both Mr Thaksin and Ms Yingluck spent years in exile after the governments they led were ousted by military coups, and Ms Yingluck remains abroad.
Ms Paetongtarn’s appointment comes amid political uncertainty in Thailand, which has over the last two decades seen a spate of military coups and court rulings that have ousted governments and disbanded political parties.
In the May 2023 General Election, the progressive Move Forward Party clinched the lion’s share of the vote but was prevented from forming government by the Senate and royalist MPs. The party was later dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Aug 7 over its campaign pledge to amend the controversial lese majeste law. Its 143 MPs have now established themselves under a new iteration called the People’s Party.
Pheu Thai, which came in second in the 2023 polls, then formed an alliance with military-linked parties and its erstwhile rivals, with Mr Srettha at its helm. Political observers are divided on whether Mr Srettha’s dismissal signals this fragile truce is under threat.
This is a developing story.