Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been approved as Thailand’s next Prime Minister, after securing enough support from lawmakers.
This makes her Thailand’s youngest-ever Prime Minister.
The 37-year-old, known by her nickname Ung Ing, is the youngest child of billionaire former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Paetongtarn is also the second woman to lead Thailand.
Thailand’s parliament confirmed her nomination by the ruling coalition of her Pheu Thai party.
The ruling coalition chose Paetongtarn as its replacement at a meeting after none of the 10 other parties in the coalition put forward an alternative.
Pheu Thai and its partners hold 314 seats in parliament, and Paetongtarn needed the approval of more than half of the current 493 lawmakers to become Prime Minister.
Paetongtarn, who has never served in government, will take office at a time of political instability.
She succeeds Srettha Thavisin who was removed from his post by a constitutional court ruling this week.
Srettha’s removal was the latest chapter in a long-running battle between the military, pro-royalist establishment and populist parties linked to Thaksin, who shook up the country’s staid politics when he was first elected Prime Minister in 2001.
Thaksin spent years in exile after being removed in a military coup in 2006 and returned to Thailand only last year, on the day Pheu Thai formed the government.
The reformist Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in parliament but was blocked from forming a government by the Senate, which at the time was appointed by the military and had a veto of prime ministerial appointments.
Last week, the constitutional court also voted to dissolve MFP and ban its executive board members from politics for 10 years over its promise to amend strict royal defamation laws.
The party has since regrouped as the People’s Party.
“In the span of one week, the court has disfranchised more than 14 million voters by dissolving their party of choice, and unseated a democratically elected prime minister,” said Napon Jatusripitak, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, who added the verdict amounted to a judicial coup.
Paetongtarn Expresses Confidence In Pheu Thai
Speaking after she was named as Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidate, Paetongtarn said she respects Srettha and thinks what happened to him was unfortunate but added, “The country must move on.”
“I have confidence in Pheu Thai. I have confidence in all government coalition parties to bring our country out of the economic crisis,” she said.
Paetongtarn was a near-constant presence on the campaign trail in the 2023 elections when she was one of Pheu Thai’s Prime Minister candidates.
Paetongtarn played a prominent role in Pheu Thai’s election campaign, as the party sought to capitalise on the popularity of her family name among older rural voters in the north and northeast.
She campaigned while pregnant, video-calling into rallies when she was no longer able to travel.
She gave birth just two weeks before polling day.
However, the party came second in the election. She did not ultimately run to be Prime Minister last year.
Ken Lohatepanont, a researcher focused on Thai politics, said the coalition formed by Pheu Thai and its old enemies would probably still hold, given both sides want to keep Move Forward’s successor party, known as the People’s Party, out of power.
“But Thaksin’s freedom of navigation is being increasingly limited,” he added, saying it has put Thaksin in the uncomfortable position of selecting his daughter to run as Prime Minister – a prospect the family reportedly finds uncomfortable, given the frequency of high stakes legal cases launched against politicians.
READ ALSO: Peace Council Faulted For Inadequate Conflict Prevention Efforts
