Thailand’s Anutin Charvirvirakul was elected Prime Minister on Friday after breeze through a parliamentary vote and threatened the candidate to the Shinawatra family’s once-dominant ruling party to end a week’s chaos and political stalemate.
With crucial opposition backing, the Anutin passed the threshold for more than half of the lower houses required to become a premier, uncovered the drama’s days and a crib for power, exceeding the most successful political party in Thai’s history.
The clever dealer Anutin has been a cornerstone of Thai politics throughout years, placed his Bhumjaithi party strategically between warring elites involved in an indispensable power struggle and guarantees its place in a number of coalition governments.
His rut of rival challenger Chaikasem Nitisiri was a humiliation for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, the once unstoppable populist juggernaut of the influential billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who left Thailand late Thursday to Dubai, where he spent the majority of his 15 years in self-equipped exile.
Anutin led from the start and won 63% of the votes, with twice as large as chaikasem.
He was bullied by a Falanx of Media as he left the chamber, and his helpers averted a scrap of journalists who jumped and shouted as he slowly angled against a waiting car.
“I want to work my hardest, every day, no vacation because there is not much time,” said Anutin, his face lights up by Bursts of Camera Blell.
“We have to ease problems quickly.”
Pheu Thai’s crisis was triggered in June by Anutin’s withdrawal from his alliance, which left the coalition government clinging to power with a razor -cut majority in the midst of protests and falling popularity.
The Hammer Battle was last week’s dismissal of a court in Thaksin’s daughter and protege Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the sixth prime minister from or supported by the Shinawatra family to be removed by the military or court.
Anutin’s victory came as a result of a covenant with the progressive opposition people’s party, the greatest strength of parliament, which he seduced with promises to hold a referendum to amend the constitution and call a election within four months.
‘We will return’
A political veteran and son of a former cabinet minister who once ran his family’s construction company is 58-year-old Anutin a former deputy, Minister of the Interior and Health Minister who served as Thailand’s Covid-19 Tsar.
As a tough royalist, Anutin is considered a conservative, though he made a name for himself by leading a successful campaign to decriminalize cannabis in Thailand, leading to an explosion of thousands of marijuana details.
Anutin will lead a minority government that the People’s Party will not join, and take the helm of a country with an economy fighting from weak consumption, tight lending and rising levels of household debt.
His accelerated increase in the premiere was tied to the political calculation of PowerBroker Thaksin and the decline of pheu Thai, which won five of the last six choices, but has softened support among the working classes once they were wooed of his fleet of populist gifts.
Despite the heavy defeat, Pheu Thai promised to return to power and deliver his agenda.
“We will return to end the job for all the Thai people,” it said.
Thaksin’s unannounced departure from Thailand on his private Jet came after his party failed in desperate bid to dissolve the house and undermine Anutin’s block. A court decision that could see Thaksin jailed is set for next week.
Tycoon made a biased return from Dubai in 2023 to serve an eight-year judgment for abuse of power and conflicts of interest, but in his first night in prison he was transferred to the VIP wing in a hospital on medical grounds.
His verdict was commuted to a year by the king and he was released on triallessness after six months in detention. The Supreme Court decides on Tuesday whether Thaksin’s Hospital Stint counts as the time earned. If not, it could send him back to jail.
In a post on X, Thaksin said he was in Dubai for a medical control and to see old friends.
“I will be back in Thailand by September 8 to personally attend court,” he said.
