BANGKOK – Ms Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, was elected as the new leader of the party that heads the nation’s ruling coalition, cementing her family’s grip on power following a general election earlier in 2023.
Ms Paetongtarn, also known as Ing, was elected unopposed alongside a new board of executives at Pheu Thai’s general meeting held in Bangkok on Friday.
The election was necessitated after the party’s previous leader Cholnan Srikaew stepped down at the end of August.
He is now the health minister in Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s Cabinet.
The youngest of Thaksin’s three children, 37-year-old Paetongtarn is the latest member of the Shinawatra clan to join active politics.
Parties backed by the influential family have dominated elections in the past only to be routinely booted out of office either through military coups or court rulings.
Her rise to leadership came within two years of her joining the party, and is set to strengthen the Shinawatra clan’s grip over the organisation and the government.
Thaksin returned to Thailand after 15 years of self-imposed exile in August, as his party assumed power as head of an 11-party coalition – seen as a deal with the conservative establishment that once loathed him.
Although Thaksin was sentenced to eight years in jail immediately upon return for graft convictions, his prison term was commuted by King Maha Vajiralongkorn to just one year.
He has spent most of the time in a police hospital and undergone two surgeries during his stay.
Ms Paeotongtarn played a crucial role during Pheu Thai’s election campaign in 2023, helping it to re-energise voters in its traditional strongholds of the north and north-eastern regions.
Thaksin and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra – both former premiers – were ousted in military coups in 2006 and 2014 respectively.
Ms Paetongtarn was one of Pheu Thai’s three prime minister candidates and is currently a vice-chairwoman of the government’s Soft Power Strategy Committee headed by Mr Srettha. BLOOMBERG
