Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand's youngest-ever PM following Srettha Thavisin's ouster
Aug 16, 2024
Bangkok [Thailand], August 16 : The Thai Parliament voted to make Paetongtarn Shinawatra the next as well as the youngest-ever prime minister of Thailand, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.
Paetongtarn succeeds Srettha Thavisin, who was removed from his post by a constitutional court ruling on Wednesday.
Known by her nickname Ung Ing, Paetongtarn is the youngest child of billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra and is the third member of the family after her father and aunt to hold the nation's top job.
The parliament confirmed the nomination of Paetongtarn, 37, by the ruling coalition of her Pheu Thai party.
Srettha's removal was the latest chapter in a long-running battle between the military, pro-royalist establishment, and populist parties linked to Thaksin, who shook up the country's staid politics when he was first elected prime minister in 2001, Al Jazeera reported.
He spent years in exile after being removed in a military coup in 2006 and returned to Thailand only last year, on the day Pheu Thai formed the government.
At a meeting on Thursday night, the ruling coalition chose Paetongtarn as its replacement after none of the 10 other parties in the coalition put forward an alternative.
Thai and its partners hold 314 seats in parliament, and Paetongtarn needed the approval of more than half of the current 493 lawmakers to become prime minister.
Paetongtarn helped run the hotel arm of the family's business empire before entering politics three years ago and has never held elected office. She was a near-constant presence on the campaign trail in the 2023 elections when she was one of Pheu Thai's prime minister candidates, giving birth just two weeks before polling day.
Earlier, The reformist Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in parliament but was blocked from forming a government by the Senate, which at the time was appointed by the military and had a veto of prime ministerial appointments, Al Jazeera reported.
Last week, the constitutional court also voted to dissolve MFP and ban its executive board members from politics for 10 years over its promise to amend strict royal defamation laws.
The party has since regrouped as the People's Party.
