BANGKOK: Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to return to the Southeast Asian kingdom on Tuesday, the same day as a key parliamentary vote could end a political deadlock, his daughter said.
The 74-year-old billionaire was ousted in a 2006 military coup and has spent 15 years in self-exile.
Thaksin has long said he wanted to return home, but faces multiple criminal charges that he says are politically motivated.
READY TO RETURN? Thailand’s self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra gestures during an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Hong Kong on March 25, 2019. AFP FILE PHOTO
“On Tuesday, August 22, 9 a.m., I will pick up my father Thaksin at Don Muang Airport,” his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, one of the Pheu Thai Party’s candidates for prime minister, said on Instagram.
His return will coincide with an afternoon vote on whether to approve Pheu Thai’s Srettha Thavisin as prime minister and end months of political uncertainty since May’s general election.
To become premier, Srettha needs to muster a majority across the lower chamber of 500 elected members of parliament, and the 250-member Senate that was handpicked by the kingdom’s last junta.
The progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most parliamentary seats in the election, but the Senate blocked its leader Pita Limjaroenrat from becoming prime minister after being spooked by a controversial policy to reform the kingdom’s harsh royal insult laws.
Pheu Thai came second in the race and has been trying to form a government.
While he’s long been a divisive figure, political analysts don’t expect Thaksin’s presence to kick off protests.
“I think Thai people have moved on from Thaksin,” political analyst Verapat Pariyawong told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Verapat expects Thaksin to be taken to court upon his arrival.
“His return means that he is confident that when he lands in Thailand he won’t be a victim of political games and that the steps are there to make sure he is in a comfortable position,” Verapat said. “The real question is whether he would actually come back, and if yes, where did he get that assurance from?”
Thaksin said on social media days before the election that he would return to Thailand “before my birthday” in July because he was getting old and wanted to spend time with his grandchildren.
He has lived in self-exile, mostly in the Emirati city of Dubai, since 2008 and regularly addresses supporters on the Clubhouse social media platform using the alias Tony Woodsome.
Thaksin was convicted during his time abroad in four criminal cases, one of which has now passed the statute of limitations.
His sentences for the other three total 10 years in prison, while he is still under investigation in another case, and in his May message he said he was ready to face justice.
He has long maintained the cases were politically motivated.
Thaksin previously slated an August 10 return to the capital Bangkok, but postponed it, citing a medical appointment.
Another political analyst, Yuttaporn Issarachai, said there had long been rumors about his return and still no guarantees it would happen this time.
“I give it a 50-50 chance,” Yuttaporn told AFP, adding that his return might cause distress among the senators.
