Thailand’s parliament on Friday elected Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the youngest daughter of controversial former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, as its new prime minister.
Paetongtarn becomes the third Thai leader to come from the Shinawatra family, following his father, who was ousted in a coup before returning from exile last year, and his aunt Yingluck Shinawatra, who lives in exile. Paetongtarn also became Thailand’s second female prime minister after her aunt and the country’s youngest leader at 37.
As the sole candidate, she was confirmed with 319 votes in favor, 145 against, and 27 abstentions. MPs spent about an hour voting in public, one by one. Paetongtarn is the leader of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, but was not elected as an MP, which was not required for her to run for prime minister.
She will officially become prime minister with royal approval, although the timing of that step is not known.
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Paetongtarn received warm greetings and applause from her party members before delivering her first speech after the parliamentary vote at the party office in Bangkok. Admitting she was very excited, she said she felt very “honoured and happy” and thanked the members of parliament for their votes.
“I really hope that I can restore people’s confidence, that we can create opportunities and improve the quality of life,” she said. “I hope I can do my best to move the country forward.”
The last prime minister was dismissed by the Constitutional Court two days ago for ethics violations.
Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, is one of Thailand’s most popular but controversial political figures. He was ousted in a military coup in 2006. He is widely considered the de facto leader of Pheu Thai, the latest in a series of parties linked to him. His residual popularity and influence explain Paetongtarn’s political support.
Her public entry into politics came in 2021, when the Pheu Thai party announced she would lead an inclusion advisory committee. She was appointed Pheu Thai leader last year, after being named as one of three candidates for prime minister ahead of the election.
When Paetongtarn was campaigning for Pheu Thai, she acknowledged her family ties but insisted that she was not just her father’s proxy.
“I am my father’s daughter, always and forever, but I make my own decisions,” she told a reporter.
However, his father’s shadow is too large to ignore and his job will not be easy if he continues to lead Pheu Thai’s policy decisions, said Petra Alderman, a political researcher at the University of Birmingham in England.
“Thaksin was a political force to be reckoned with, but he was also a liability,” she said. “He tends to overplay his political game, so serving in his shadow was never easy.”
The alderman noted that while Paetongtarn appears to receive overwhelming support from his party, the coalition and the Pheu Thai voter base, these are not the only factors that will determine the course of his premiership.
“Who governs in Thailand and for how long are questions often answered by unelected and unaccountable watchdog institutions, (such as) the Election Commission of Thailand and the Constitutional Court, or by military coups,” she said.
Paetongtarn’s appointment follows the ouster of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday, less than a year after he took office. The Constitutional Court found him guilty of a serious ethical breach over the appointment of a government official imprisoned for an alleged bribery attempt.
This is the second major ruling in a week to shake up Thai politics. Last week, the same court dissolved the progressive Move Forward party, which won last year’s general election but failed to take power. The party has already regrouped under the name of the People’s Party.
Pheu Thai and his predecessors had won every national election since 2001, with core populist policies promising to solve economic problems and bridge income equality, until he lost to the reformist Move Forward party in 2023. He was, however, given the chance to form a government after Move Forward was blocked from taking power by the previous Senate, a military-appointed body.
Move Forward was excluded from the coalition by Pheu Thai, which then joined parties affiliated with the military government that overthrew it in a coup.
Thaksin returned to Thailand last year after years in exile, in what was interpreted as part of a political deal between Pheu Thai and his longtime rivals in the conservative establishment to prevent the Move Forward party from forming a government.
Former senators were given special powers to veto a prime ministerial nominee under a constitution adopted in 2017 under a military government. However, that power expired when their terms ended in May. The new Senate members, selected through a complex process last month, do not retain that veto power. That means a candidate only needs a majority in the lower house.
The coalition under Paetongtarn’s leadership could strengthen their unity because Paetongtarn has something Srettha does not – a direct line to his powerful father who has the final say – said Napon Jatusripitak, a political science researcher at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“In a strange way, it creates a clear chain of command and limits factions,” he said. “Paetongtarn will be given clear jurisdiction over where she can exert her own influence and where it is up to her father and the coalition members.”
With Move Forward dissolved and the party’s sole prime ministerial candidate, Pita Limjaroenrat, banned from political activities, Napon believes the rest of the major political parties would resume a “game of musical chairs” in the race for the premiership, which has been suspended “with a power-sharing agreement, regardless of who becomes prime minister.”
“More importantly, the overall goal remains the same: to keep the music going and keep the reformists out of power,” he said.
