Ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra delays return to Thailand from self-exile as post-election deadlock persists

Thaksin said he needed a medical check up and would postpone his return, originally planned for August 10, by ‘a couple of weeks’

Pheu Thai and MFP, the two election-winning parties, had been trying to form a government with coalition partners but were blocked by the military-backed Senate

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Exiled former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:25pm, 5 Aug 2023

Thai former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday he was postponing his return from self-exile as the country struggles to overcome a political deadlock after the general election in May was won by opponents of military-backed parties.

Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon who became prime minister in 2001 and ousted by the military in 2006, has towered over Thailand’s politics despite having lived in self-imposed exile since 2008 to avoid corruption convictions which he said were politically motivated after his government were ousted in a 2006 coup.

On Saturday, Thaksin said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that he needed a medical check up and would delay his return, originally planned for August 10, by “a couple of weeks”.

Pheu Thai, the party backed by Thaksin, came second in the May election after the progressive Move Forward Party.

The two election-winning parties have been trying to form a government with six like-minded partners but have been blocked by the Senate, dominated by military appointees, and conservative opponents.

Earlier this week, Pheu Thai took the lead in trying to form a government without Move Forward, whose own attempts to form a government met with relentless opposition from the pro-military conservatives alarmed by its reform agenda.

The constitution, drafted during military rule, requires a joint sitting of the elected Lower House and the appointed Senate to vote for a prime minister.