Thai opposition confirms Thaksin’s daughter as PM candidate

THAILAND’S main opposition Pheu Thai party confirmed on Wednesday (Apr 5) the daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as one of its candidates to be prime minister in the kingdom’s upcoming election.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a 36-year-old with a jet-setting lifestyle and half a million Instagram followers, stands in stark contrast to her establishment rivals, two strait-laced former army chiefs with a combined age of 146.

A sea of Pheu Thai supporters, wearing t-shirts in the party’s signature colour red, tramped into a football stadium on the northern edge of Bangkok to see Paetongtarn anointed alongside businessman Srettha Thavisin and party strategist Chaikasem Nitisiri.

The parties for the May 14 vote fall into two broad camps – those backed by Thailand’s military and royalist establishment, and more reformist opposition groups with Pheu Thai at their head.

Pheu Thai is riding high in the polls but may yet be blocked from seizing the top job by the kingdom’s constitution, written in 2017 by the then-ruling military junta.

For many, Paetongtarn does not represent a break with Pheu Thai’s traditional policies even despite the talk of young versus old.

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“It doesn’t matter whether she has management or political experience or not, as long as she represents Pheu Thai party, she represents Thaksin,” Chulalongkorn University political analyst Puangthong Pawakapan said.

Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck, Thailand’s first female premier, was dogged throughout her rule by perceptions that she was little more than her brother’s stooge and was eventually ousted in 2014.

To avoid a repeat with Paetongtarn, Puangthong said this time the party might use her during the campaign but ultimately push another less controversial candidate as their main choice for leader – most likely Srettha. AFP