THE SISTER of fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra won a landslide victory yesterday in Thailand’s first elections since violence tore the country apart last year, and was on track to become the southeast Asian nation’s first female leader.
Billionaire tycoon Mr Thaksin, who now lives in Dubai since being exiled over corruption charges, has described his sister Yingluck as his “clone”, and the big win for her Puea Thai party is a significant step on his way to political rehabilitation.
“I’ll do my best and will not disappoint you,” the telegenic 44-year-old businesswoman told a gathering at her Pheu Thai headquarters.
Pheu Thai, broadly linked to the Red Shirt demonstrators who occupied central Bangkok for two months last year, accuses the Bangkok elite and the army of breaking laws with impunity.
Ms Yingluck’s party won 262 seats with sitting leader Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat Party taking 162, according to projections from the election commission. Exit polls indicated she was on track to win 313 seats, enough to give her a strong majority, compared to just 152 for the Democrats, a dreadful showing for Mr Abhisit, a British-born, Oxford-trained economist.
This election has pitted the Bangkok establishment against the rural poor of the north and the urban working class, and Mr Abhisit seemed to lack the common touch the Red Shirt-supporting Pheu Thai managed to achieve.
At the Pheu Thai headquarters there was jubilation. Supporters shouted “number one Yingluck” and “prime minister Yingluck” and people hugged and sang songs. Mr Abhisit conceded defeat in a speech that seemed to indicate the election result would not lead to a coup or more political unrest.
“I would like to congratulate the Pheu Thai party for the right to form a government,” he said.
“The Pheu Thai party and I would like to reiterate that we are ready to deliver on all of the policies that we have announced,” Ms Yingluck told supporters.
Mr Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 coup and lives in Dubai to avoid jail for corruption charges he says were politically motivated. He called his sister to congratulate her. “He told me that there is still much hard work ahead of us,” she said.
“This election made it clear there are different poles of opinion in Thailand. The Reds are populist and I don’t think what they are promising is achievable. I don’t want Thaksin to come back,” said Preyanee Suputhipong, who owns a Chinese-language book shop in Bangkok. “I voted number one. From what I could see they were the best on the economy. They make it good.”
“Thaksin did it before. I focus on the economy because I’m a businessman,” said one retiree voting. Another man, younger, said he believed Mr Thaksin would be back by the end of the year.
The election is Thailand’s 26th since it became a democracy in 1932, ending seven centuries of absolute monarchy. Since then, it has seen 18 military coups or coup attempts.