Paetongtarn Shinawatra was elected by Parliament today to become Thailand’s 31st Prime Minister. The final vote tally for the 38-year-old legacy politician stood at 319 in favor, 145 against, and 27 abstentions when the votes were tallied this afternoon. 

 

The Constitutional Court found former Prime Minister Srettha Thavasin guilty of a gross violation of ethics for appointing ex-convict Pichit Chuenban to the cabinet. Deputy PM Phumtham Wechayachai served as acting Prime Minister until the vote decided on a new leader. 

 

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a member of the Shinawatra political family, was nominated as a PM candidate last year for Pheu Thai, along with Chaikasem Nitisiri and the eventual winner Srettha Thavasin.

 

After her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra who held the role from 2011 until 2014, Paetongtarn is Thailand’s second female PM and the youngest. Her father, Thaksin, was forced to flee the country in a coup in 2006 and returned last year. Thaksin’s brother-in-law Somchai and Yingluck were forced from the office of prime minister by court rulings.

 

Real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin became Prime Minister of Thailand on August 22, 2023, and he was forced to step down on August 14, 2024, serving for just 357 days. The Prime Ministership was ripped from Srettha because the Constitutional Court said he lacked honesty and integrity as cited under Section 160 of the Charter due to the appointment of an ex-convict, Pichit Chuenban, who had previously served six months in prison in 2008.

 

The National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) found that Srettha’s approval rating sat at 12.85% in June of this year. The nine judges ruled 5-4 to dismiss Srettha from office.

 

The military-appointed Senate that scuppered the election-winning Move Forward Party after the last election was not part of this election process. 

 

Last week, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the progressive MFP under the auspices of the lese-majeste law, banning the party’s executive board, including the PM Who Never Was Pita Limjaroenrat, from politics for 10 years.

 

“In the span of one week, the court has disfranchised more than 14 million voters by dissolving their party of choice, and unseated a democratically elected prime minister,” Napon Jatusripitak, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told The Guardian.

 

Prior to the vote, the new leader of the People’s Party said that their party would not endorse Paetongtarn Shinawatra and criticized the blatant lawfare efforts that saw the Move Forward Party dissolved earlier this month.