Thread: Yingluck Shinawatra set to be Thailand's first female premier

Yingluck Shinawatra set to be Thailand's first female premier

From Sara Sidner, CNN
UPDATED: 01:18 PM EDT 07.03.11

Yingluck Shinawatra was poised to become Thailand's first female prime minister Sunday after her party won a majority of parliamentary seats in the nation's general elections.

The official tally had not yet been completed, but with more than 90 percent of votes counted Sunday night, Yingluck's Pheu Thai party had won 262 seats in the country's 500-seat parliament.

"The first thing I want to do is help people on their economic situation," she said earlier Sunday, refusing to declare victory until the official count was over.

Minutes before, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded that she had won.

Yingluck is the younger sister of one of Thailand's most polarizing political figures, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.

Two years later, he left the country after being convicted on conflict of interest charges -- accusations that he still denies.

Flags with his image waved in the sticky night air outside the Pheu Thai headquarters. A child wearing a shirt with his sister Yingluck's picture on it walked past them, trying to get closer to the celebration outside.

Yingluck's critics worry she will simply do her brother's bidding -- something she has denied.

Before she even gave her victory speech, her brother shared his comments from exile in Dubai.

"Well, I would tell them that I really want to go back, but I will wait for the right moment and the right situation," Thaksin told reporters.

The Pheu Thai party remains fiercely behind Thaksin and wants him to return.

The so-called "Yellow Shirts," a group that formed to oust Thaksin from power, will do whatever they can to stop that from happening.

What does his sister say about all this? CNN asked her three days before the election.

"I can't do anything special for my brother so as long as if my brother will be every process we will follow by the rule of law," Yingluck said.

With about 47 million eligible voters in Thailand, Sunday's balloting was held to decide Thailand's first general election since 2007, an election that many hope will bring an end to years of unrest between two political factions that climaxed last year with protests that turned deadly.

"There is a lot more hard work to do in the future for the well-being of our sisters and brothers, the people of Thailand," Yingluck said Sunday. "There are many things to accomplish to make reconciliation possible, paving the way for a solid foundation for a flourishing nation."

Tensions between the Democratic Party and the Pheu Thai party, which reflect deep divisions within Thai society, erupted last year, with protests against Abhisit's government leading to a military crackdown. More than 90 people were killed and hundreds were injured.

After the riots, the Thai government pledged to work toward a process of national reconciliation to heal class and political divisions, though the divide between the two groups remains wide.

But average Thai voters were more concerned with economic issues, wanting their leaders to shrink the gap between what they earn and the skyrocketing cost of living.

"Free education is good, care for elderly is also good. In fact every parties' policies are all good, the question is if they would ever implement them." Banorn Achriyawatkul said as she worked outside a polling station.

After being laid off from her job as a secretary, the mother of four is now a food vendor in the streets, trying to make ends meet.

Despite the animosity between them, the two major parties have made very similar promises to the people: a better economy, free education, and a major increase in the minimum wage -- exactly what many voters wanted to hear.

But analysts say the extravagant programs will cost more than Thailand can afford.

Supong Limtanakool of Bangkok University's Center for Strategic Studies said both parties made big promises they just can't keep.

"It will be something that we have to spend somewhere between an additional 1.5 trillion baht to 7.5 trillion baht (49 billion dollars to 244 billion dollars) with all the extravagant programs, which is five times the national budget. ... I mean, we'll be broke in one year," he said.

From CNN.com

Here's a generic article, but it provides enough background for anyone who is interested in dabbling in this topic.
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Thais Back Ousted Prime Minister’s Party in Landslide
By SETH MYDANS and THOMAS FULLER
Published: July 2, 2011


BANGKOK — The party of the fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won an overwhelming victory in a parliamentary election on Sunday that could turn Thai politics on its head and roll back the results of a coup that ousted Mr. Thaksin almost five years ago.

In a contest that was seen as a referendum on Thailand’s recent turmoil, the Pheu Thai party, headed by Mr. Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, 44, appeared headed for an absolute majority of the 500-seat Parliament. With 98 percent of the votes counted late Sunday night, her party won a projected 264 seats.

The governing Democrat Party won just 160 seats, and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva conceded defeat.

Ms. Yingluck, a businesswoman with no political experience, was selected to head the party by her brother, who called her his “clone.” She proved to be a brilliant campaigner in the election, which will give Thailand, a major American ally in Southeast Asia and one of the region’s most important economies, its first female prime minister.

The vote is a vindication for Mr. Thaksin, 61, a populist champion of Thailand’s long-marginalized rural poor, who was elected prime minister twice, in 2001 and 2005, and removed in a coup in September 2006.

“I believe all sides have to respect the decision of the people,” he said Sunday, speaking to a Thai television station from Dubai, where he lives, evading a conviction for abuse of power. “If any country doesn’t respect the decisions of its people, there’s no way it is going to find peace.”

The vote had broader resonance as well, part of a rebalancing of Thailand’s hierarchical society that so far has played out in the streets, challenging the elite establishment and giving more voice to the poor.

“This is a slap in the face to the establishment for what they’ve done since the military coup in 2006,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University. “This is a new Thailand that they must learn to live with.”

He added: “This whole election is all about the awakened voices. These people discovered that they can actually have access and be connected to the system.”

The Pheu Thai party is supported by many of the “red shirt” protesters, representing the rural and urban poor, who are committed to Mr. Thaksin and staged a two-month rally that paralyzed parts of Bangkok a year ago.

The Democrat party, led by Mr. Abhisit, is the party of the establishment, including royalists, old-money elite and high-ranking members of the military, and is at the top of a traditional hierarchical social and political system in Thailand. A military assault crushed the red-shirt protests in confrontations that killed about 90 people in April and May of last year.

Entire: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/wo...d.html?_r=1&hp