Thailand’s Pheu Thai party chooses Paetongtarn Shinawatra as PM candidate

“We decide to nominate Paetongtarn Shinawatra,” party secretary general Sorawong Thienthong told a press conference in Bangkok.

Lawmakers will vote on Friday in parliament – where Pheu Thai heads a governing coalition – on whether to approve Paetongtarn as prime minister.

“We are confident that the party and coalition parties will lead our country in helping with Thailand’s economic crisis,” Paetongtarn said after the announcement.

The vote comes after Thailand’s Constitutional Court sacked premier Srettha Thavisin on Wednesday after ruling he had breached regulations by appointing a cabinet minister with a criminal conviction, plunging the kingdom into fresh political uncertainty.

Pheu Thai – the electoral vehicle of one-time Manchester City owner Thaksin – is the largest member of a governing coalition of 11 parties that includes royalist and pro-military outfits who were once its bitter rivals.

Srettha was the third prime minister from Pheu Thai to be kicked out by the Constitutional Court and leaves office after less than a year.

Thai politics has endured two decades of chronic instability marked by coups, street protests and court orders.

Much of it has been fuelled by the long-running battle by the military and pro-royalist establishment against progressive parties linked to Thaksin.

The tycoon ex-premier returned to Thailand last August from 15 years in self-exile on the same day Srettha took power in an alliance with pro-military parties previously staunchly opposed to Thaksin and his followers.

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Former Thai PM Thaksin to face trial for royal defamation

The timing seemed to suggest a truce in the long-standing feud as both sides sought to see off the threat posed by the newer Move Forward Party (MFP), which won the