BangkokPost-Mar 22
All eyes are on whether Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the youngest daughter of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, will be named as a candidate for prime minister in the next general election after she was put in charge of a campaign aimed at promoting unity in the Pheu Thai Party. At a party meeting in Udon Thani on Sunday, Ms Paetongtarn, 35, was named as the head of the “Pheu Thai Family” campaign and vowed to help the party win an overwhelming victory in the election and form a government. On Oct 28 last year, she was appointed the Pheu Thai Party’s chief adviser on participation and innovation during its general assembly in Khon Kaen.
The introduction of Ms Paetongtarn fits into Pheu Thai’s policy of bringing in someone from the younger generation as a driving force to work with the party’s veteran politicians, observers said. Phichai Ratnatilaka Na Bhuket, a political scientist at the National Institute of Development Administration, told the Bangkok Post that Pheu Thai’s latest campaign led by Ms Paetongtarn is another step to assert itself politically and it is very likely that she will be named as a candidate for prime minister in the next electionThe campaign is also aimed at bringing former party members who broke away or defected to other parties into the party’s fold, though the campaign can also be construed as a bid to consolidate the power of the Shinawatra family, Mr Phichai said. The party’s support base is made up mainly of people in rural areas, particularly in the Northeast and if the party wants to win a landslide victory in the next poll, it must seek the support of both older and young generations. Read more at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2282786/paetongtarn-tipped-as-candidate-for-pm
