Former Thai leader’s daughter is sole nominee for prime minister

The daughter of divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra was nominated and endorsed on Friday to get Parliament’s approval as the new country’s prime minister – two days after a court removed the last one over an ethics violation.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, is the leader of the Pheu Thai party and the sole nominee. She does not hold an elected office.

If she is approved in Parliament’s vote, she will become Thailand’s second female prime minister and the country’s third leader from the Shinawatra family after her father and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. She will also become the country’s youngest leader.

Thaksin Shinawatra was the first Thai politician to win an overall majority of seats. One of Thailand’s most popular but divisive political figures, he was ousted by a military coup in 2006.

He is widely seen as a de facto leader of Pheu Thai, the latest in a string of parties linked to him. His residual popularity and influence is a factor behind the political support for Paetongtarn.

When Paetongtarn was on the campaign trail for Pheu Thai, she acknowledged her family ties but insisted she was not just her father’s proxy.

“It’s not the shadow of my dad. I am my dad’s daughter, always and forever, but I have my own decisions,” she said.

“Thaksin was a political force to reckon with, but he was also a liability.

“He has a tendency to overplay his political hand, so serving in his shadow has never been easy.”

Paetongtarn’s nomination followed the removal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday after less than a year in office.

The Constitutional Court found him guilty of a serious ethical breach regarding his appointment of a Cabinet member who was jailed in connection with an alleged bribery attempt.

It was the second major ruling in a week to shake Thai politics.

The same court last week dissolved the progressive Move Forward party, which won last year’s general election but was blocked from taking power. The party has already regrouped as the People’s Party.

Pheu Thai and its predecessors had won all national elections since 2001, with core populist policies pledging to solve economic problems and bridge income equality, until it lost to the reformist Move Forward in 2023.

It, however, was given a chance to form a government after Move Forward was blocked from taking power by the previous Senate, a military-appointed body.

Move Forward was excluded from the coalition by Pheu Thai, which went on to join hands with parties affiliated with the military government that ousted it in a coup.

The move drew criticism from some of its supporters but party officials say it was necessary to break the deadlock and start reconciliation after decades of deep political divisions.

Thaksin returned to Thailand last year after years in exile in what was interpreted as part of a political bargain between Pheu Thai and their long-standing rivals in the conservative establishment to stop the Move Forward Party from forming a government.