Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of ex-premier Thaksin, gained the backing of 319 of 488 Thai lawmakers.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has survived a no-confidence vote in parliament, defeating a problem from opposition events which accused her of being a puppet of her father, billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
After a two-day debate by which the opposition attacked 38-year-old Paetongtarn’s administration of the economic system and nationwide safety, in addition to her inexperience, MPs voted down the no-confidence movement by 319 votes to 162 on Wednesday, with seven abstentions.
Paetongtarn thanked her supporters after successful the vote.
“All votes, each for and in opposition to, can be a pressure driving me and the cupboard to hold on working exhausting for the folks,” she wrote on Fb.
The movement comes at a nasty time for Paetongtarn. Public confidence in her coalition authorities’s skill to resolve nationwide issues is low, at solely 38.55 p.c.
Her father, Thaksin, was probably the most influential and controversial politician in trendy Thai historical past. He returned to the dominion in 2023 after 15 years of self-exile.
Thaksin served a number of months of an eight-year jail sentence for historic corruption and abuse of energy expenses in a police hospital earlier than being pardoned by the king, fuelling rumours of a backroom deal to deal with him leniently.
The 75-year-old stays widespread amongst tens of millions of poorer Thais who prospered beneath his 2001 to 2006 rule, however he’s despised by the dominion’s conservative elite, who regard him as corrupt and manipulative.
Paetongtarn turned prime minister final yr on the head of a coalition authorities led by the Pheu Thai Occasion, the most recent incarnation of the political motion based by Thaksin, after the incumbent Srettha Thavisin was thrown out by a courtroom order.
In addition to being the youngest individual to take the management, Paetongtarn is Thailand’s second-ever feminine prime minister after her aunt, who was eliminated in a coup in 2014.
Thaksin’s shadow looms giant
Through the censure debate, Rangsiman Rome, an outspoken lawmaker with the primary opposition Individuals’s Occasion, accused Paetongtarn of engineering preferential therapy for her father.
“You made a deal, a demon deal, to get your father higher circumstances than different prisoners,” he mentioned in parliament.
“The situation was your father won’t be in jail for a single day.”
Paetongtarn denied the allegation, mentioning that she turned prime minister a number of months after her father’s royal pardon.
Thaksin has since spoken overtly about authorities coverage however has repeatedly mentioned he solely provides his daughter recommendation.
Opposition MPs additionally accused Paetongtarn of avoiding tax and of mishandling the case of 40 Uighurs despatched again to China late final month.
The repatriation of the Uighurs prompted worldwide condemnation and led to the US imposing visa bans on some Thai officers.
