Thailand’s Anutin Charnvirakul was elected prime minister yesterday after breezing through a parliamentary vote, trouncing the candidate of the Shinawatra family’s once-dominant ruling party to end a week of chaos and political deadlock.
With decisive opposition backing, Anutin easily passed the threshold of more than half of the lower house votes required to become premier, capping off days of drama and a scramble for power during which he outmanoeuvred the most successful political party in Thailand’s history.
Shrewd dealmaker Anutin has been a mainstay in Thai politics throughout years of turmoil, positioning his Bhumjaithai party strategically between warring elites embroiled in an intractable power struggle and guaranteeing its place in a succession of coalition governments.
His rout of rival contender Chaikasem Nitisiri was a humiliation for the ruling Pheu Thai party, the once unstoppable populist juggernaut of influential billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who left Thailand late on Thursday for Dubai, where he spent the bulk of his 15 years in self-imposed exile.
Anutin led from the start and won 63 per cent of the votes, with double the tally of Chaikasem.
He was mobbed by a phalanx of media as he left the chamber, his aides fending off a scrum of journalists who jostled and shouted as he edged slowly towards a waiting car.
“I will work my hardest, every day, no holidays, because there is not a lot of time,” Anutin said, his face lit up by bursts of camera flashes.
“We have to ease problems quickly.”
Pheu Thai’s crisis was triggered in June by Anutin’s withdrawal from its alliance, which left the coalition government clinging to power with a razor-thin majority amid protests and plummeting popularity.
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