Thailand’s junta moves to sideline pro-Thaksin governors and police
Thailand's ruling military junta is removing or transferring officials and police officers known to be loyal to the Shinawatra family in an effort to exclude them from future political power
Thailand’s military is conducting a systematic reshuffle to blunt the power of officials seen as loyal to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in what seems to be an effort to dismantle his support base and ensure he can never return to power.
Governors in 13 provinces have been transferred, mostly from the country’s pro-Thaksin north and northeast, according to the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
“If a Thaksin party wins the next election again then his guys will be waiting to take up key positions again.”
The junta is also restructuring the police, long seen as a bastion of support for Thaksin and his sister, ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Thaksin was a police officer for 13 years before resigning to start his own business.
Thaksin himself was ousted from office in a coup in 2006, and the constitution was rewritten under a military-backed government in an effort to limit his political influence. But Thaksin’s sister came to power just a few years later, in 2011, after winning a general election.
This time the military seems intent on ensuring neither he nor his family can return.
“They will finish what they started in 2006. They will make it difficult for Thaksin loyalists to make a comeback,” said Kan Yuenyong, a political analyst at Siam Intelligence Unit.