Saturday, July 5, 2025
  • Who’sWho Africa AWARDS
  • About Time Africa Magazine
  • Contact Us
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • Magazine
  • World News

Home » World News » Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister

Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister

Daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra approved as PM after frantic negotiations triggered by ousting of Srettha Thavisin

August 19, 2024
in World News
0
Paetongtarn Shinawatra

Paetongtarn Shinawatra

540
SHARES
4.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has become Thailand’s youngest prime minister, taking office just days after her predecessor was ousted by a shock court ruling.

Paetongtarn was approved as the new head of government in a parliamentary vote that came after 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court judgment ordering Srettha Thavisin to step down as prime minister.

Srettha was ousted for breaching ethical rules after he appointed a minister who had served time in prison – a verdict widely seen as political.

Paetongtarn, 37, is Thailand’s youngest prime minister and the second woman to lead the country, after her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra. Speaking after the vote in parliament, she said she was confused and saddened by the court decision to oust Srettha, adding: “I hope that I can do my best to make the country go forward.”

Paetongtarn Shinawatra becomes Thailand’s youngest prime minister

ReadAlso

Myanmar, Thailand Earthquakes: Rescuers Hunt For Survivors Trapped In Collapsed Buildings

Woman discovers needle left in vagina during childbirth after 18 years of pain

Paetongtarn, who has never served in government, is the youngest of three children born to Thaksin and is the fourth member of the Shinawatra family to become prime minister. Thaksin’s brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, was prime minister briefly during 2008, while Yingluck was in post from 2011 until 2014. Thaksin, Yingluck and Somchai were each ousted either by military coups or court rulings – part of a longrunning power struggle between the family and the military royalist establishment.

Paetongtarn will need to manage threats from her family’s old enemies, as well as revive the country’s sluggish economy and her party’s popularity. In office, she will be leading an unlikely coalition that includes some of her party’s old opponents. The controversial arrangement came about after last year’s election, when the former enemies found they were united by a common threat: a popular youthful party, Move Forward, which captured the most votes after promising reforms to make Thailand more democratic and break up big monopolies.

ADVERTISEMENT

Pheu Thai struck a deal to form a coalition with military-linked parties, pushing Move Forward into opposition and allowing Thaksin to return to Thailand last year, ending 15 years in exile. However, the court ruling ousting Srettha from office has underlined the fragile nature of this arrangement.

Srettha, a real-estate tycoon, led the country for less than a year and is the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by constitutional court judgments. A week earlier, the court disbanded the Move Forward party over its promise to reform the country’s strict lese-majesty law.

“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,” said Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, adding that the verdict amounted to a judicial coup.

Paetongtarn played a prominent role in Pheu Thai’s election campaign as the party sought to capitalise on the popularity of her family name among older rural voters in the north and north-east. She campaigned while pregnant, video-calling into rallies when she was no longer able to travel. But the party came second in the election and she did not ultimately run to be prime minister last year.

During her speech on Friday she told media she was honoured to lead Thailand, saying that “I get on stage very often, and I don’t get excited at all, but today my hands are shaking”. She said she had talked with her father over Facetime. “He said to do my best and teased me that he’s happy to see that his daughter has the position [of prime minister] before he has Alzheimer’s. My mom also told me to take care of myself,” she said.

Some have criticised her for referencing her father immediately after assuming power, saying it emphasises that she is in office because of her family name. Thaksin is widely seen as the patriarch and decision-maker behind Pheu Thai, and critics accused Srettha, and now Paetongtarn, of being puppets.

Ken Lohatepanont, a researcher focused on Thai politics, said the coalition formed by Pheu Thai and its old enemies would probably still hold, given both sides wanted to keep Move Forward’s successor party, known as the People’s party, out of power.

“But Thaksin’s freedom of navigation is being increasingly limited,” he added, saying it had put Thaksin in the uncomfortable position of selecting his daughter to run as prime minister – a prospect the family reportedly finds uncomfortable, given the frequency with which high stakes legal cases are launched against politicians.

Source: The Guardian
Tags: Asia Pacific. Thaksin ShinawatraThailand
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

French diplomatic shift highlights Morocco’s growing role in Africa

Next Post

‘A revolution is building’: can young people force change across Africa?

You MayAlso Like

Featured

The Sheikh Who Conquered Soccer and Coddles Warlords

July 4, 2025
Featured

Trump Plans to Deport Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani

July 4, 2025
UK

Major fire shuts part of London Underground causing commuter chaos

July 4, 2025
UK

Has Kemi Badenoch finally shown the killer instinct to save her as Tory leader?

July 4, 2025
World News

Almost 400 human corpses found piled high in mysterious house of horrors

July 4, 2025
World News

Ugandan military helicopter crashes at Somalia’s Mogadishu airport

July 4, 2025
Next Post

‘A revolution is building’: can young people force change across Africa?

HRM Apostle Chibuzor Pays Tribute to Senator Ifeanyi Ubah: 'A Good Man Who Has Gone to Heaven to Rest'

Discussion about this post

Why Igbos Must Stop Storing Corpses in Mortuaries — Ogilisi Igbo Speaks Out

Almost 400 human corpses found piled high in mysterious house of horrors

Senator Natasha: Nigeria’s Senate President Akpabio Brought To Heel By Legal Checks

Are Igbos Cursed Or The Architects Of Their Own Predicament?

Will Senate President Akpabio Comply with the Court Order and Reinstate Akpoti-Uduaghan?

Funeral held for woman kept on life support until baby could be delivered

  • British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

    1238 shares
    Share 495 Tweet 310
  • Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

    1064 shares
    Share 426 Tweet 266
  • Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

    967 shares
    Share 387 Tweet 242
  • ‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

    901 shares
    Share 360 Tweet 225
  • Crisis echoes, fears grow in Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu State

    735 shares
    Share 294 Tweet 184
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

April 13, 2023

Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

December 27, 2022
Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

September 22, 2023
‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

March 21, 2023
Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu, wife of Willie Obiano, former governor of Anambra state

NIGERIA: No, wife of Biafran warlord, Bianca Ojukwu lied – Ebele Obiano:

0

SOUTH AFRICA: TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE?

0
kelechi iheanacho

TOP SCORER: IHEANACHA

0
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

WHAT CAN’TBE TAKEN AWAY FROM JONATHAN

0

British tourist among two women killed by elephant in Zambian national park 

July 5, 2025

Ex-Arsenal star Thomas Partey charged with five counts of rape

July 5, 2025

Tinubu’s end game on Fubara

July 4, 2025

The Sheikh Who Conquered Soccer and Coddles Warlords

July 4, 2025

ABOUT US

Time Africa Magazine

TIME AFRICA MAGAZINE is an African Magazine with a culture of excellence; a magazine without peer. Nearly a third of its readers hold advanced degrees and include novelists, … READ MORE >>

SECTIONS

  • Aviation
  • Column
  • Crime
  • Europe
  • Featured
  • Gallery
  • Health
  • Interviews
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Lifestyle
  • Magazine
  • Middle-East
  • News
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • Russia-Ukraine
  • Science
  • Special Report
  • Sports
  • TV/Radio
  • UAE
  • UK
  • US
  • World News

Useful Links

  • AllAfrica
  • Channel Africa
  • El Khabar
  • The Guardian
  • Cairo Live
  • Le Republicain
  • Magazine: 9771144975608
  • Subscribe to TIME AFRICA biweekly news magazine

    Enjoy handpicked stories from around African continent,
    delivered anywhere in the world

    Subscribe

    • About Time Africa Magazine
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
    • Politics
    • Column
    • Interviews
    • Gallery
    • Lifestyle
    • Special Report
    • Sports
    • TV/Radio
    • Aviation
    • Health
    • Science
    • World News

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.