Get ready for some major political trouble later this year in the Land of Smiles.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the youngest daughter of deposed former Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra, is mulling a run for her dad’s old job. Over the weekend, Paetongtarn — Thais go by their given name — got a lot of buzz at the assembly of Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party, calling for a landslide victory in a snap election expected to be called in November.
That would be no surprise, given that Thaksin-backed parties have won every national election in Thailand since 2001. The 35-year-old Paetongtarn, with zero political experience of her own, would be a vessel for her billionaire dad, the most influential name in Thai politics for a generation.
With his daughter as a proxy, Thaksin likely wants two things: to return to politics — pulling the strings in the background — and to return home from self-imposed…
