BANGKOK—Thailand’s Parliament on Tuesday began voting in a second attempt to choose a prime minister, hours after ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after years of self-imposed exile and entered prison to begin serving an eight-year sentence. The Thaksin-linked Pheu Thai Party proposed former property developer Srettha Thavisin as…
Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, left, with his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, arrives at Don Muang airport in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday, August 22, 2023.BANGKOK—Thailand’s Parliament on Tuesday began voting in a second attempt to choose a prime minister, hours after ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand after years of self-imposed exile and entered prison to begin serving an eight-year sentence.
Thaksin’s private jet landed around 9 a.m. local time in Bangkok, where family and supporters welcomed him. Decades ago, Thaksin promoted populist policies and used his telecommunications fortune to build his own Thai Rak Thai party and be elected prime minister in 2001 and easily reelected in 2005, before being ousted in a military coup in 2006 and fleeing into exile a few years later. Thaksin was tried in absentia on corruption charges he dismissed as politically motivated, and sentenced to eight years in prison.
In what could be perceived as a special treatment, officials said Thaksin has not yet received the severe crew cut associated with Thai prisoners. Less than a week before May elections, Thaksin announced he would like to return before his birthday in July, but the plan was repeatedly delayed.
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