Thaksin has been in hospital detention since August, after making a dramatic homecoming from living abroad for 15 years in self-exile to avoid prison for a conflict of interest.

Thailand has some of the world’s strictest royal defamation laws protecting King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family, with each charge bringing a potential 15-year prison sentence.

Thaksin, whose eight-year jail sentence was commuted to a year following a royal pardon, qualifies for release on parole next month due to his age and health.

Pheu Thai is the latest incarnation of the party founded by Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s father, who was in self-imposed exile for 15 years following a coup.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s plan to stimulate the economy and consequentially prop up a flagging property market by ramping up government spending and boosting consumption has received mixed reactions from analysts.

Net foreign direct investment to Thailand from China in the first six months of 2023 was up 56 per cent year-on-year to US$690 million, central bank data showed.

Chaithawat Tulathon, a former political magazine editor, will head the progressive party after Pita Limjaroenrat stepped down earlier this month.

Thailand PM Srettha Thavisin says Thaksin Shinawatra can play a role in the government, and that it would be ‘unwise’ of him not to seek the ex-premier’s opinion.

The Thai king had commuted Thaksin’s eight-year sentence to a year, but he could be released sooner on parole for prisoners older than 70 or those who are ill.

Architect and artist Duangrit Bunnag carried out a promise to be pelted with faeces in a performance following the formation of a coalition government involving army-backed parties.

Reviving Thailand’s faltering economy will be one of the biggest tasks for political newcomer Srettha, who became prime minister last month.

The Royal Gazette state journal said 74-year-old billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra had ‘accepted his crime and shown remorse’.

Thailand’s most famous politician returned home last week from living abroad in self-exile for 15 years after his party was ousted in a coup.

Thaksin Shinawatra returned to Thailand last week after 15 years of self-imposed exile and was immediately sent to prison, but was transferred to a hospital just hours after he began serving an eight-year sentence.

Srettha Thavisin – who needs to form a cabinet from an 11-party alliance – has met with his ex-military predecessor Prayuth Chan-ocha, the architect of a 2014 coup against the last Pheu Thai government.

In a parliamentary vote on Tuesday afternoon, Srettha passed the threshold of 375 votes needed to become premier and form the next government.

A possible ‘super-deal’ with former political foes may allow Thaksin to be held in special detention and swiftly seek a royal pardon from the Thai king.

In this issue of the Global Impact newsletter, we look back at recent elections in the likes of Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia following a busy time for politics in Southeast Asia in recent weeks

About 64 per cent of 1,310 respondents disagreed or totally disagreed with the idea of the Pheu Thai party forming a ‘special government’ with military-backed rivals.

Thaksin Shinawatra’s potential return to the kingdom on Tuesday coincides with a key parliamentary vote that could end a political deadlock to choose a new prime minister.

The United Thai Nation Party, which fielded former coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha as its PM candidate in the election, said it will help Pheu Thai ‘to move the country forward together’.

A new coalition by Pheu Thai Party, former ally of winner Move Forward Party whose leader was rejected for PM, is nominating property magnate Srettha Thavisin, leaving MPF with a predicament.

Pheu Thai – the main rival of the Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in May – has teamed up with Bhumjaithai, part of an army-backed coalition elected in controversial 2019 polls, to ‘step over political deadlock’.