Thai legislators are set to cast their ballots on Friday for the choice of the new and third premier from the Shinawatra family, although Thaksin Shinawatra, the billionaire, has never served in any capacity, let alone the premiership.
Thai lawmakers are to approve tomorrow in a vote the appointment of the 37-year-old daughter of politician and business tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra as prime minister, making it the third generation of the family to hold the post of prime minister despite never having even been elected to any political post.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, whose father Thaksin Shinawatra and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra have served the country as premier, would be the youngest leader Thai kingdom has under the tenets of a constitutional monarchy if elected.
She would also become the kingdom’s second woman prime minister, following her aunt.
The vote, which is expected to start at 10 am (local time), was occasioned by the dismissal of premier Srettha Thavisin for appointing a cabinet minister with a criminal record.
Srettha was sacked on Wednesday in the next episode of a war that has been waged between the junta, the royalists, and the anti-junta, populist political factions aligned with Paetongtarn’s father, a telecommunications mogul and former owner of Manchester City.
The Pheu Thai Party chose Paetongtarn as its replacement candidate Thursday. No other one of the ten other parties in the coalition that it leads could offer an alternative plan.
The third largest party in the parliament, Bhumjaithai, stated that it had ‘endorsed a candidate’ from Pheu Thai prior to the vote on Friday.
Paetongtarn has to gather an absolute majority—247 votes—from the 493 members currently in the body.
Speaking to the press shortly after the party released her name to vie for the leadership of the party, she said, ”We are confident that the party and coalition parties will lead our country.”
But in Thailand’s unpredictable form of politics, a victory for the Palang Pracharat party in parliament is not guaranteed.
