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Thailand ‘needs to be fixed’ and Pheu Thai is the one to do it, says Thaksin’s daughter

  • Paetongtarn Shinawatra says she’s confident of a landslide election win for her party and is ‘100 per cent ready’ to be a nominee for prime minister
  • Widespread public discontent stemming from the high cost of living and household debt will power Pheu Thai’s return to power, she says

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Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, pictured at a Pheu Thai party general assembly meeting last month. Photo: AP
Bloomberg

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, bidding to follow in the footsteps of her father and aunt in becoming Thai prime minister, is confident her party can achieve a landslide victory at the next elections with better policies to ease the burden of voters.

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The 36-year-old daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra is widely seen as the Pheu Thai opposition party’s top potential candidate for the premiership, alongside property tycoon Srettha Thavisin. She has been leading her party’s outreach programme ahead of elections slated for May and said she’s “100 per cent ready” to be one of the party’s three nominees.

“Right now the country needs to be fixed, it needs better policies and people need to have a better life,” Paetongtarn said in an interview while campaigning in the northeastern province of Nong Khai on Saturday. “They have suffered for eight years and I think they have suffered long enough. Our party is ready and is capable of helping people.”

The Shinawatra clan’s dominance of Thai politics has helped Paetongtarn emerge as the most popular choice for prime minister in recent surveys. Opinion polls are also showing Pheu Thai as the party likely to win the most seats in the next elections.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra with Srettha Thavisin during a visit to Bangkok’s Chinatown earlier this month. Photo: EPA-EFE
Paetongtarn Shinawatra with Srettha Thavisin during a visit to Bangkok’s Chinatown earlier this month. Photo: EPA-EFE

Paetongtarn said widespread public discontent stemming from the high cost of living and household debt will power her Pheu Thai party’s return to power after eight years of a military-backed government led by Prayuth Chan-ocha.

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Pheu Thai, which won the largest number of seats in 2019 elections only to be thwarted by a coalition of parties led by the military-backed Palang Pracharath, is wooing voters with a pledge to raise minimum wages by 70 per cent and increase crop prices while slashing energy costs.
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