Bangkok, Aug 16 (EFE).- Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who belongs to one of Thailand’s most powerful political dynasties, was elected as the country’s youngest prime minister on Friday, ending a tumultuous 72 hours which saw the dismissal of her predecessor by the Constitutional Court.
Paetongtarn, 37, was elected with 319 votes in favor, 145 votes against and 27 abstentions in an extraordinary parliamentary session, which was called after Srettha Thavisin was ousted from office Wednesday in an ethics case over his appointment of a cabinet minister with a prior criminal conviction.
“Today, I feel very honored and very happy,” Paetongarn (nicknamed Ing) told reporters after the vote, saying that her hands were shaking from excitement.
“I really hope that I can make people feel confident that we can build opportunities and improve the quality of life and empower all Thais,” she said, adding that she aims to do her “best every day with the opportunities I have.”
Paetongarn, who like Srettha belongs to the popular Pheu Thai party, is to be the country’s 31st prime minister, the youngest to assume office and only the second woman to become Thailand’s head of government.
The first, her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra, was ousted from office by the same court that dismissed Srettha, just days before a military coup in May 2014, while her father Thaksin Shinawatra was removed in a 2006 putsch.
She said she had been “very sad” to learn of the court’s dismissal of Srettha on Wednesday, an outcome she did not expect, but had talked to him, her family and the party and “decided it was time to do something for the country and for the party as well, and I hope I can do my best, make the country go forward.”
Paetongtarn will now head the governing coalition of 11 parties and faces the difficult task of reestablishing order amid a fractious political scene.
This ramped up last week when the same court that ousted Srettha dissolved the largest opposition party, the progressive 2023 election winner Move Forward Party, and banned its leaders from politics for 10 years.
The party that has been formed out of the ashes of that dissolution, People’s Party, did not endorse Paetongtarn on Friday but decried the current Thai political landscape and the “lawfare” of the courts.
The rulings against Srettha and Move Forward sparked international criticism for what has been seen as the “judicialization” of politics.
Paetongtarn, Thaksin’s youngest daughter, had long been seen as a candidate to continue her family’s political dynasty and was already touted for the position a year ago.
This was in September, following Srettha’s appointment, after his party allied with military-led formations in parliament to form an unlikely coalition government.
The alliance led to Thaksin returning from his 15 years in self-imposed exile on the day Srettha became PM, and both factions to govern the country despite neither of them winning the election.
Upon his return to Thailand last August, Thaksin began an eight-year jail term for conflict of interest, malfeasance and abuse of power. Days later the sentence was commuted to one year by the king.
The 75-year-old did not spent a single night in jail as, upon beginning his sentence, he was transferred to hospital for undisclosed health issues, where he reportedly stayed for six months until he was freed on parole.
Thaksin is currently facing a lèse-majesté charge and is scheduled to appear in a court hearing on Monday. EFE
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