Thailand’s parliament will vote on whether to approve Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, as a future leader in a vote on Friday that follows more than a week of political upheaval.
Paetongtarn, 37, was selected as a prime ministerial candidate following 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court ruling that ousted the former prime minister Srettha Thavisin.
Thailand’s parliament convened on Friday morning and endorsed Paetongtarn’s nomination for prime minister, with a vote expected later in the day.
She is the youngest of three children born to the divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra. Her father was ousted in a coup in 2006, but remains hugely influential.
If approved by parliament, Paetongtarn will be the fourth member of the Shinawatra family to become prime minister. Thaksin’s brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, was prime minister briefly during 2008, while his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, was prime minister from 2011 until 2014. Both Somchai and Yingluck were forced from office by court rulings.
Paetongtarn would be the second woman to lead Thailand, after Yingluck.
Lawmakers will vote on Friday whether to approve Paetongtarn. She must secure 247 votes from the 493 members currently in parliament.
Paetongtarn proved popular among her father’s loyal supporters during last year’s election, but is politically inexperienced, and, if approved, will take office at a time of political instability.
Thaksin returned to Thailand last year, ending 15 years in exile, after making an unlikely deal with his former enemies in the royalist military establishment – a controversial arrangement considered a betrayal by some of the party’s former supporters.
The old foes were united by a common enemy; a popular youthful party, Move Forward, that captured the most votes after promising reforms to make Thailand more democratic and break up big monopolies. Wednesday’s court ruling ousting Srettha from office has underlined the delicate nature of this arrangement.
Srettha, a real-estate tycoon, led the country for less than one year, and is the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by Constitutional Court judgments. He was found to have violated the constitution by appointing a minister who had served jail time – a verdict many consider political.
A week earlier, the court disbanded the Move Forward party over its promise to reform the country’s strict lese majesty law.
“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.
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 played a prominent role in Pheu Thai’s election campaign, capitalising 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. However, 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.
