Daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra approved as PM after frantic negotiations triggered by ousting of Srettha Thavisin

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has become Thailand’s youngest prime minister, taking office just days after her predecessor was ousted by a shock court ruling.

Paetongtarn was approved as the new head of government in a parliamentary vote that came after 24 hours of frantic negotiations triggered by a court judgment ordering Srettha Thavisin to step down as prime minister.

Thaksin appears in court accused of lese-majeste relating to 2015 interview with South Korean media

The former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a powerful backer of the ruling government, has been formally indicted for allegedly insulting the monarchy almost two decades ago.

One of Thailand’s most influential political figures, Thaksin, 74, appeared at Bangkok’s Ratchada criminal court accused of lese-majeste. The case relates to an interview he gave to South Korean media in 2015. He was granted bail on Tuesday.

Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 and spent 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid charges he said were politically motivated. He returned to Thailand last year, arriving back in the country on the same day his party Pheu Thai formed an unlikely coalition with his former enemies from the conservative military establishment – a deal that was in both sides’ interest because it kept a popular, youthful pro-reform party out of power.

Formerly exiled billionaire freed six months into eight-year sentence due to age and health

Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been freed on parole and returned home, six months after he was arrested on his dramatic return to the kingdom from 15 years of self-imposed exile.

The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, was jailed for eight years on graft and abuse-of-power charges after he arrived in Thailand in August.

Billionaire politician was jailed on corruption charges in August last year after returning from self-imposed exile

Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to be freed, the kingdom’s justice minister has said, possibly as soon as the weekend – just six months after returning from 15 years of self-imposed exile.

The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, was jailed for eight years on graft and abuse of power charges in August, but within days had his sentence cut to one year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Thaksin, who returned to Thailand last week, ‘accepted his crime and showed remorse’, says royal gazette

King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand has reduced the sentence of Thaksin Shinawatra from eight years down to one, just over a week after the former prime minister returned from more than 15 years in self-imposed exile.

A document published in the royal gazette said the country’s most famous politician had “accepted his crime and showed remorse”, adding the former prime minister was elderly and ill.

Ex-PM begins eight-year jail term but appointment of Srettha Thavisin as leader could shorten his sentence

Thailand’s populist former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has arrived in Bangkok after more than 15 years in exile as his party returned to government in a controversial pact with its military rivals that keeps reformists out of power.

Thaksin – a hugely influential but also divisive politician – began an eight-year jail term on his return, though commentators have noted that his arrival in the country coincides with his party’s return to office and a backroom deal could allow him to escape a full sentence.

Arrangement angers many Pheu Thai supporters and could coincide with former PM’s return from exile

The party associated with Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has struck a deal with its former military rivals, a move that could coincide with his return after more than 15 years in exile.

The deal announced on Monday has angered many Pheu Thai supporters, as well as those of the reformist Move Forward party that won the most votes and seats in the May general election but whose leader was blocked from taking office.

Influential figure who has spent 15 years in exile is set for comeback at a time of political crisis in homeland

Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who has spent more than 15 years in self-imposed exile to avoid legal charges, will return to the country next month, his daughter has said, amid tense political deadlock.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who recently ran as a prime ministerial candidate for Pheu Thai, the party backed by her father, said Thaksin would return on 10 August.

Young voters demand change but military-appointed senate poses hurdle to a non-establishment candidate becoming prime minister

Thais are voting on Sunday in an election that could lead to the defeat of the military-backed leader who has ruled Thailand for almost a decade.

However, a skewed election system means the shape of the new government is “very unpredictable”, say analysts, and it is not clear if pro-democracy candidates will succeed in unseating the generals.

Back on the campaign trail just days after giving birth, Paetongtarn Shinawatra is confident of a landslide victory

Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s face beamed from the side of a campaign truck as she addressed crowds of her supporters. “I am happy I have the chance to talk to you, Chiang Mai people,” she said last month. “It’s too bad I could not be there in person.”

Then eight-and-a-half months pregnant, Paetongtarn, 36, who is running to become Thailand’s next prime minister, has been unable to travel during the final leg of election campaigning. Instead, in a red jacket, the trademark colour of her Pheu Thai party, she video-called her supporters in Chiang Mai, in the north, from a hospital in Bangkok.

Baby brought out to media in incubator as Paetongtarn Shinawatra says ‘children are my secret power’ ahead of election

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a leading candidate in the upcoming Thai election, has said she is keen to resume campaigning days after giving birth.

Speaking at a press conference held at a hospital in Bangkok, Paetongtarn said she remained confident that her Pheu Thai party would win a landslide victory.

As parliament dissolves, party of Paetongtarn, whose father was deposed in 2006, has best chance of forming majority

Thailand’s parliament has been dissolved, paving the way for an election in May that will pit military-linked candidates against the daughter of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn has endorsed a decree to dissolve parliament, according to an announcement in the Royal Gazette on Monday. An election must be held between 45 and 60 days after the house’s dissolution.

Thailand is due to go to the polls next month, but after a short-lived political earthquake it looks likelier than ever that the military will entrench its hold. The country has been waiting for this election since general Prayuth Chan-ocha took power five years ago, via the 13th successful coup since 1932, and promised an election within months. Despite the military’s unpopularity – it pledged to “return happiness”, tackle corruption and reconcile the country, and has failed on all counts – it has formed a party and its man is standing as a candidate. Rigged rules introduced by the junta require a prime minister to have a majority of the combined houses of parliament: having appointed the 250-seat senate, it need only cobble together a coalition of 126 seats in the 500-seat elected lower house.

The plan was thrown into doubt this month by the seismic announcement that a member of the revered royal family, Princess Ubolratana Mahidol, would stand as a potential prime minister, as the candidate for a party loathed by Thailand’s royalist elites because it is aligned with its controversial exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The aftershock was equally powerful: within hours her brother the king announced that her decision was “inappropriate” since the monarchy is “above politics”. Although his sister relinquished her title when she married an American in 1972, she has been treated as a royal since returning to Thailand on her divorce.

In what looks like a Thaksin Shinawatra masterstroke, the junta now has a real challenger

Call it Thaksin’s revenge. The shock announcement on Friday that a senior royal is running for prime minister has electrified Thai politics. It is a shot in the arm for a moribund democracy suffocated by authoritarian rule. It wrecks the traditional separation of crown and government. And it means next month’s election may prove a genuine contest, not merely a joyless coronation of Prayut Chan-o-cha, leader of the military junta.

Yet most telling is the fact that the nomination of Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi, elder sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, was put forward by the Thai Raksa Chart party. The party is closely allied to Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, both former prime ministers ousted in military coups in 2006 and 2014 respectively, the latter led by Prayut.

After repeated postponements, polls will be first since military coup in 2014

Thailand is to hold its long-awaited general election on 24 March, its first since a military coup almost five years ago.

The announcement, which came hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a royal decree formalising the election, marks a significant moment in the country’s return to democracy.