BANGKOK - The youngest sister of fugitive Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Monday she would stand as the main opposition party's candidate for premier in July's general election.
Yingluck Shinawatra's nomination by the Puea Thai party makes her the first woman to run for Thailand's top government job, and confirms Thaksin's centrality in the kingdom's political landscape.
"I am ready to fight according to the rules and I ask for the opportunity to prove myself. I ask for your trust as you used to trust my brother," she told a party meeting in Bangkok, attended by reporters.
"I will utilise my femininity to work fully for our country."
Although he lives abroad to escape a jail term for graft, Thaksin -- ousted in a 2006 coup -- is widely considered the de facto leader of the Puea Thai party, a view underscored by his politically inexperienced sister's nomination.
Thaksin is hailed by many rural and working class Thais for his populist policies for the masses but loathed by the Bangkok-based elite, which sees him as corrupt, authoritarian and a threat to the revered monarchy.
The election on July 3 will pit his sister against his arch-foe, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the elite-backed Democrat Party, in what is expected to be a closely fought battle.
"Five years after the coup there are a lot of people still missing my brother and his policies. I feel my family is indebted to the people and that's a key factor in my decision," she said.
At 43, the glamorous businesswoman and mother-of-one is three years younger than her rival Abhisit and -- as the youngest of the nine Shinawatra siblings -- 18 years junior to Thaksin.
While she is expected to draw support from his loyalists in the north and northeast, analysts say she could struggle to appeal to a broader support base among those more sceptical of her controversial brother.
Parties linked to Thaksin have won the most seats in the past four elections, but court rulings have reversed the results of the last two polls, held after the former tycoon was forced from power.
Puea Thai has wide support among the largely rural and working-class Red Shirts, whose mass anti-government rallies in the capital last year led to Thailand's worst political unrest in decades.
The Reds were calling for snap polls to oust Abhisit, who they accuse of being an unelected puppet of the army and the establishment as he took office in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court threw out the previous government.
A year on from an army crackdown on the Reds' protests, during which more than 90 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and armed forces, Thailand remains deeply divided.
Oxford-educated Abhisit's party, Thailand's oldest, draws most of its support from Bangkok and the south but it has not won a general election in nearly two decades.
Observers fear this year's campaign could see more violence after a Puea Thai lawmaker, Pracha Prasopdee, was shot in an attack last week that the government said appeared to be politically-motivated.
Abhisit said he had instructed the national police chief to ensure the security of all parliamentary candidates ahead of the polls, which think-tank International Crisis Group warned last month could bring fresh unrest.
On Thursday, the Red Shirts plan to hold a demonstration in the capital to mark the first anniversary of the army's assault on their protest base, which dispersed the rally.
In an interview printed in the Bangkok Post daily on Monday, Thaksin said Puea Thai, and particularly its Red Shirt supporters, had suffered most from the country's unrest but would need to "forgive and forget".
"After the election, after Puea Thai wins, it has to be clear that there will be no retribution taken," he was quoted as saying.
- AFP/ir/ls
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=yingluck&id=1129194
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Yingluck Shinawatra's nomination by the Puea Thai party makes her the first woman to run for Thailand's top government job, and confirms Thaksin's centrality in the kingdom's political landscape.
"I am ready to fight according to the rules and I ask for the opportunity to prove myself. I ask for your trust as you used to trust my brother," she told a party meeting in Bangkok, attended by reporters.
"I will utilise my femininity to work fully for our country."
Although he lives abroad to escape a jail term for graft, Thaksin -- ousted in a 2006 coup -- is widely considered the de facto leader of the Puea Thai party, a view underscored by his politically inexperienced sister's nomination.
Thaksin is hailed by many rural and working class Thais for his populist policies for the masses but loathed by the Bangkok-based elite, which sees him as corrupt, authoritarian and a threat to the revered monarchy.
The election on July 3 will pit his sister against his arch-foe, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the elite-backed Democrat Party, in what is expected to be a closely fought battle.
"Five years after the coup there are a lot of people still missing my brother and his policies. I feel my family is indebted to the people and that's a key factor in my decision," she said.
At 43, the glamorous businesswoman and mother-of-one is three years younger than her rival Abhisit and -- as the youngest of the nine Shinawatra siblings -- 18 years junior to Thaksin.
While she is expected to draw support from his loyalists in the north and northeast, analysts say she could struggle to appeal to a broader support base among those more sceptical of her controversial brother.
Parties linked to Thaksin have won the most seats in the past four elections, but court rulings have reversed the results of the last two polls, held after the former tycoon was forced from power.
Puea Thai has wide support among the largely rural and working-class Red Shirts, whose mass anti-government rallies in the capital last year led to Thailand's worst political unrest in decades.
The Reds were calling for snap polls to oust Abhisit, who they accuse of being an unelected puppet of the army and the establishment as he took office in a 2008 parliamentary vote after a court threw out the previous government.
A year on from an army crackdown on the Reds' protests, during which more than 90 people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and armed forces, Thailand remains deeply divided.
Oxford-educated Abhisit's party, Thailand's oldest, draws most of its support from Bangkok and the south but it has not won a general election in nearly two decades.
Observers fear this year's campaign could see more violence after a Puea Thai lawmaker, Pracha Prasopdee, was shot in an attack last week that the government said appeared to be politically-motivated.
Abhisit said he had instructed the national police chief to ensure the security of all parliamentary candidates ahead of the polls, which think-tank International Crisis Group warned last month could bring fresh unrest.
On Thursday, the Red Shirts plan to hold a demonstration in the capital to mark the first anniversary of the army's assault on their protest base, which dispersed the rally.
In an interview printed in the Bangkok Post daily on Monday, Thaksin said Puea Thai, and particularly its Red Shirt supporters, had suffered most from the country's unrest but would need to "forgive and forget".
"After the election, after Puea Thai wins, it has to be clear that there will be no retribution taken," he was quoted as saying.
- AFP/ir/ls
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=yingluck&id=1129194
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eKi7pq0J5D0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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