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Leading candidate for Thai PM Paetongtarn ‘Ung-Ing’ Shinawatra gives birth to baby boy

  • The birth of Thasin comes two week’s ahead of Thailand’s May 14 elections, for which the 36-year-old campaigned vigorously despite her pregnancy
  • Self-exiled father Thaksin, founder of the political dynasty’s hotly tipped Pheu Thai Party, lamented missing the birth of his seventh grandchild

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Paetongtarn Shinawatra pictured on the campaign trail last month. The 36-year-old continued to vigorously promote her family’s Pheu Thai Party late into her pregnancy. Photo: EPA-EFE
Aidan Jones
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the most popular candidate running to be Thailand’s next prime minister in elections later this month, has given birth to a baby boy, prompting her billionaire father Thaksin to lament missing the birth of a seventh grandchild during his self-exile overseas.
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In a photo shared with her half a million Instagram followers on Monday morning, a smiling Paetongtarn – better known by her nickname ‘Ung Ing’ – and her husband welcomed the birth of Thasin, their second child, and thanked the public for their support.

Before the birth, the 36-year-old had campaigned vigorously for the May 14 polls despite being heavily pregnant, leading the pack in polling for the premiership on behalf of the Pheu Thai Party, her family’s electoral machine.

Pheu Thai is expected to win the most seats in the 500-member lower house in two weeks time.
 
The election is seen as crucial to whether pro-democracy parties will return to power, or if the generals and their conservative allies – who aimed coups at the civilian governments of Yingluck Shinawatra, Paetongtarn’s aunt, in 2014 and Thaksin in 2006 – will find a way back into office.
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