By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PAETONGTARN SHINAWATRA, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, was today (Aug. 18) formally endorsed by His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn as Thailand’s 31st prime minister.
A privately-owned hall on Vibhavadi Road was used as venue for the reception of the monarch’s edict to formally name the 38-year-old prime minister who concurrently performs as leader of the Pheu Thai, core of the current coalition.
Paetongtarn who has become the country’s second woman prime minister after her aunt/former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was recently voted head of a Pheu Thai-led government by a majority of coalition MPs plus some renegades from the opposition bloc.
Paetongtarn has succeeded the Pheu Thai-attached Srettha Thavisin who had been impeached and deprived of his prime-ministerial status by the Constitutional Court on grounds of breaching the constitution and code of political ethics.
With Thaksin’s camp remaining as core of the current coalition partners, his daughter will head a newly-formed cabinet of ministers many of whom will likely retain their seats from a previous one headed by her predecessor.
The Pheu Thai with 141 MPs will have 16 ministerial seats in addition to that of the woman prime minister, the Bhumjaithai with 70 MPs will have eight cabinet seats, the Palang Pracharath with 40 MPs and the Ruam Thai Sang Chart with 36 MPs will have four cabinet seats each and the Chart Thai Pattana with 10 MPs and the Prachachart with nine MPs will have one cabinet seat each.
Thaksin is largely believed to continue to engage in the pivotal power play with the setting up of the Paetongtarn cabinet and allocation of ministerial seats among those coalition partners as he allegedly did with last year’s setup of the Srettha cabinet.
Paetongtarn had never engaged in the political arena at any levels until she had been named one of a trio of Pheu Thai partisan candidates for prime minister contesting last year’s general election alongside Srettha and Pheu Thai MP Chaikasem Nitisiri.
Thaksin’s youngest daughter had never been an MP, a member of cabinet, held any political position in government or registered herself as a member of her father’s party until last year.
CAPTION:
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra upon being formally endorsed by His Majesty the King as prime minister today, Aug. 18, 2024. Photos: Thai Rath
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