Thaksin Phatthongtan (38), the youngest daughter of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (75), has been officially elected as the Prime Minister of Thailand. She is the youngest ever female Prime Minister in Thailand and the second female Prime Minister after former Prime Minister Thaksin’s younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra (57). This is also the first time that a female Prime Minister has been born in Thailand.
According to Reuters and other news agencies, on the 16th (local time), Patongtan, the sole candidate of the coalition government led by Thailand’s Phua Thai Party, won a majority of votes in the House of Representatives’ prime minister election vote and became prime minister. This comes two days after Prime Minister Setha Thaweesin, who was elected in August of last year, was dismissed by the Constitutional Court on the 14th on charges of corruption.
The new prime minister, Thaksin Phatthongtan, is the youngest of three children of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a political heavyweight in Thailand. After being ousted by a military coup in 2006, Thaksin lived in exile in the UK and other countries for 15 years before returning to Thailand last year. The reason Thaksin returned to Thailand despite imprisonment was because he expected that he would be pardoned if the Phua Thai Party, led by his youngest daughter Phatthongtan, took power. Thaksin is currently on parole.
Prime Minister Patong Thanh entered politics in 2021 riding on the coattails of his still-influential father. In the general election in May last year, the Phua Thai Party won the second-largest number of seats, behind the Progress Forward Party (MFP).
Patongtan attracted public attention last year when she declared that she would resume campaigning just two days after giving birth by cesarean section. At the time, she expressed confidence, saying, “Our country must move forward,” and “The Phua Thai Party will pull Thailand out of the economic crisis.”
However, there are also concerns that the election of Prime Minister Patongtan could lead to further chaos in Thai politics. The British daily Guardian said, “It is concerning that Patongtan, who has no administrative experience, has taken power during a time of political instability,” and predicted, “There are many obstacles to overcome, such as whether former Prime Minister Thaksin will be paroled.”
Reporter Choi Ji-seon [email protected]
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2024-08-17 00:27:38