Will Thaksin Shinawatra finally return to Thailand? Latest vow sparks intrigue, raises stakes ahead of polls

Former Thai PM says he wants to return in July to take care of his grandchildren, but claims he will not be a burden to his daughter’s Pheu Thai Party

Prayuth has portrayed ‘change’ as a threat to Thai history and culture, and is targeting older voters who are worried about the coming ‘apocalypse’, analysts say

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Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed to return from self-exile before his birthday in July. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:30pm, 9 May 2023Updated: 7:02pm, 9 May 2023

Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, hero to the rural poor but villain to the royalist establishment, on Tuesday vowed to return to the kingdom to face the legal system in July after years in self-exile, adding fresh intrigue to the final days of campaigning before a crucial May 14 poll.

The 73-year-old telecoms tycoon fled the kingdom in 2008 to avoid a two-year jail term over a land purchase, a conviction which followed a 2006 coup that toppled his government.

That power grab – by a military which refuses to leave power to civilians for long – sparked nearly two decades of political chaos from which the country is yet to emerge.

Former Thai prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra (left) and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra at an event in Tokyo in 2018. Photo: Asahi Shimbun/AFP

Sunday’s election is seen as the most consequential in recent history, with pro-democracy parties, led by the Shinawatra clan’s Pheu Thai Party, seeking to push out 69-year-old Prayuth Chan-ocha – who seized power in a 2014 coup from Thaksin’s sister Yingluck – and his conservative allies from power.

In two tweets on Tuesday, Thaksin put the clearest definition yet on the long rumbling issue of his return.

“I have made a decision to return to take care of my grandchildren in July before my birthday. I ask permission … it’s been almost 17 years that I have been away from my family, and I am now old.”

Paetongtarn Shinawatra during an election rally for Thailand’s main opposition Pheu Thai Party at the Thunder Dome Stadium in Nonthaburi, north of the capital Bangkok, on April 5, 2023. Photo: AFP

Pheu Thai, now fronted by Thaksin’s 36-year-old daughter Paetongtarn, is seeking a landslide of Lower House seats on Sunday to block Prayuth’s route back to power, but faces a tough task in an electoral system manufactured to favour military proxy parties.