I’m no nepo candidate, says Thai Paetongtarn Shinawatra

Paetongtarn Shinawatra also says she will not abolish controversial laws criminalising insults to the monarchy.

Pre-poll voting gets under in Bangkok on Sunday. Over 800,000 people have registered to vote early for this Sunday’s election. Picture: Getty Images

The daughter of Thailand’s exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has defended her political candidacy – and the family dynasty – against charges of nepotism just days out from an election that could install a third Shinawatra into high office, insisting it is the “people’s choice”.

“If you ask why it has to be Shinawatra, it’s because people choose Shinawatra. My dad and my aunt became prime minister because people chose them. There was no money paid,” Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in an online Q & A session on Monday night.

The 36-year-old, who gave birth to her second child early last week, was back on the campaign trail days later for the family’s Pheu Thai party, which is tipped to sweep Sunday’s election.

Whether that translates to an actual election victory, however, is still very unclear.

In Thailand, winning the ­people’s vote is only half the battle, though the fact that 2.6 million of 52 million eligible voters turned out last Sunday for advanced voting suggests the electorate has a hearty appetite for change.

The country’s political parties have been engrossed in backroom deals for weeks now, trying to shore up coalitions that will get them the numbers to form government regardless of whether they win the most votes.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha – the 69-year-old retired general who came to power in a 2014 coup but is polling a distant third in preferred prime minister surveys – is said to have already stitched together an alliance of conservative, pro-royalist and pro-military parties.

“They know they’re not going to win this election. They never have won the popular vote,” says Aim Sinpeng, a Sydney University politics lecturer and southeast Asia specialist, of Mr Prayuth and his 77-year-old deputy, Prawit Wongsuwon, another retired general.

“So the question is, how many parties can they cobble together for a coalition?”

Paetongtarn Shinawatra presents her newborn son Thasin at the Praram 9 hospital in Bangkok last week. Picture: AFP

In 2019, Mr Prayuth’s Palang Pracharat Party lost the popular vote to Pheu Thai but formed government with the support of conservative parties. Mr Prayuth himself secured a second term with the support of 250 military-appointed senators who, under the military-drafted constitution, have a say alongside 500 elected MPs in who becomes prime minister.

But many Thais blame Mr Prayuth for the country’s sluggish post-pandemic economic recovery, and have turned back in droves to the Shinawatra name.

Paetongtarn has topped preferred prime minister polls for much of the campaign despite persistent questions about her lack of experience. In the most recent Nida survey of May 3, however, she had dipped to second (29.2 per cent) behind Pita Limjaroenrat (35.44 per cent), the ­charismatic leader of the Move Forward Party that seeks to reform draconian lese-majeste laws and ­military-drafted constitution and end conscription.

Move Forward arose from the ashes of the youth-oriented and reformist Future Forward party, which won the third highest number of votes in 2019 behind Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharat only to be dissolved on spurious grounds months later.

The party has sought to broaden its base this campaign but has definitively ruled out joining any coalition involving “military parties”, Palang Pracharat and Prayuth’s new political vehicle United Thai Nation.

Paetongtarn has insisted only an election landslide will do for Pheu Thai “so that we can change the country real fast, immediately”. Asked on Monday about the party’s fallback coalition plans, Paetongtarn – whose billionaire father was ousted from government by the military in 2006, her Aunt Yingluck in 2014 – also ruled out any pro-military ­alliances.

“We are joining hands with the democratic side as the first option, but we will have to debate about party policies,” she said.

“Pheu Thai policies must be the main (policies). The prime minister must come from Pheu Thai. These are our conditions if Pheu Thai gains the highest trust from the Thai people.”

She said a Pheu Thai-led government would not support the abolition of Thailand’s Section 112 on lese-majeste, for instance, despite hundreds of young Thai activists — the youngest just 15 — having been jailed for simply demanding reform of the monarchy.

But it was open to discussing reforms to the law in parliament, she said, and would also ask the courts to show leniency to the many now facing charges as well as those languishing in jail – some of them facing decades-long prison sentences.