Paetongtarn elected Thailand’s youngest PM

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thailand’s parliament elected political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra as its youngest prime minister on Friday, only a day after she was thrust into the spotlight amid an unrelenting power struggle between the country’s warring elites.

The 37-year-old daughter of divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra sailed through a house vote and now faces a baptism of fire, just two days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by a judiciary central to Thailand’s two decades of intermittent turmoil.

At stake for Paetongtarn could be the legacy and political future of the billionaire Shinawatra family, whose once unstoppable populist juggernaut suffered its first election defeat in over two decades last year, and had to do a deal with its bitter enemies in the military to form a government.

She will become Thailand’s second female prime minister and the third Shinawatra to take the top job after aunt Yingluck Shinawatra, and father Thaksin, the country’s most influential and polarising politician.

Paetongtarn won easily with 319 votes, or nearly two-thirds of the house. She was not present in parliament and watched the vote from her Pheu Thai Party’s headquarters.

Her first public comment on the win was posting on Instagram a picture of her lunch – chicken rice – with the caption: “The first meal after listening to the vote.”

Paetongtarn has never served in government and decision to put her in play is a roll of the dice for her Pheu Thai and its 75-year-old figurehead

She will immediately face challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering, competition from a rival party growing, and Pheu Thai’s popularity dwindling, having yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout programme worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).

“The Shinawatras’ gambit here is risky,” said Nattabhorn Buamahakul, Managing Partner at government affairs consultancy, Vero Advocacy.

“It puts Thaksin’s daughter in the crosshairs and a vulnerable position.”.