Pheu Thai nominates Thaksin’s daughter as its PM candidate
Party leader Paetongtarn preferred by MPs over Chaikasem
The Pheu Thai Party’s executive board voted on Thursday to nominate former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, as its candidate to become Thailand’s 31st prime minister.
The board endorsed Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn as PM candidate for the House to vote on Friday after its MPs voted earlier in the morning to nominate her instead of Chaikasem Nitisiri, Pheu Thai’s other PM candidate.
Paetongtarn and Chaikasem are the two remaining Pheu Thai PM candidates after the Constitutional Court on Wednesday voted 5:4 to remove Srettha Thavisin as prime minister for lack of integrity.
Pheu Thai sources said Thaksin favoured Chaikasem for the top post as the former attorney-general had helped the former prime minister a lot when he faced criminal cases.
According to party sources, Pheu Thai convened a meeting of its MPs at Parliament on Thursday morning to have them endorse Chaikasem but the MPs chose Paetongtarn instead.
Paetongtarn was chosen as a much younger and healthier candidate, while Chaikasem reportedly has health issues.
Observers said the MPs feared that Chaikasem could face another Constitutional Court ruling regarding his integrity, as he was the attorney-general who had ordered public prosecutors to drop the bribery case against Pichit Chuenban.
During its verdict reading on Wednesday, the court said Pichit had clearly violated ethical standards and lacked integrity to become a Cabinet member over his suspected role in the offering of 2 million baht to Supreme Court officials when he was defending Thaksin in a corruption case back in 2008. The court removed Srettha for appointing Pichit as his Cabinet member.
Before the Pheu Thai executive voted to endorse Paetongtarn as Pheu Thai’s PM nominee, two key coalition partners – the Bhumjaithai and Untied Thai Nation Party – announced their loyalty to the Pheu Thai-led coalition.
They said they would vote for Pheu Thai’s PM candidate on Friday as long as the candidate did not support amendment of Article 112. Chaikasem in the past had expressed support for amendment of the controversial lese majeste law.
