Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the leader of Thailand’s main opposition party, has given birth to her second child on May 1, two weeks before Thailand is due to hold a general election.
Second Child
Paetongtarn is the 36 year-old daughter and niece of former Prime Ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Yingluck Shinawatra, both of whom were ousted in military coups.
She is the leader of the Pheu Thai party.
In a picture posted to her official twitter, Paetongtarn announced that the boy would be named Prutthasin Sooksawas, and that she would spend a few days recovering before speaking to the press.
สวัสดีครับ ผมชื่อเด็กชาย พฤจ์ธาษิณ สุขสวัสดิ์ ชื่อเล่นชื่อ “ธาษิณ” ครับ 🤗💙
ขอบคุณทุกกำลังใจนะครับ เดี๋ยวอีกไม่กี่วันนี้ คุณแม่รอแข็งแรงก่อนจะไปพบพี่ๆสื่อมวลชนครับ #babyThasin #mmdpsbabyboy pic.twitter.com/E7LCV1TsSx
— Ing Shin (@ingshin) May 1, 2023
Paetongtarn had not let her pregnancy deter her from actively campaigning, only very recently stepping back from campaign trail, according to Reuters.
ดีใจที่สุด! ขอแสดงความยินดีกับหลานอิ๊งค์และปอนะจ๊ะที่ในที่สุดก็ได้เห็นหน้าหลาน “ธาษิณ” แล้ว หลังจากรอคอยอุ้มท้องหาเสียงด้วยความอดทนมานาน ขอให้หลานมีสุขภาพกายที่แข็งแรงและจิตใจที่เข้มแข็งเหมือนแม่ และเชื่อว่าคุณตาคงอดใจรอจะอุ้มหลานไม่ไหว ส่วนอาก็รอวันที่จะได้อุ้มหลานนะ pic.twitter.com/N67GWNx8xI
— Yingluck Shinawatra (@PouYingluck) May 1, 2023
Leading party, but second choice for PM
The birth of Paetongtarn’s second child comes just two weeks before the May 14 general election.
Paetongtarn also leads Thailand’s main opposition Pheu Thai party that leads the most recent poll by a commanding 22 per cent, according to Bloomberg.
In second place with 19 per cent is the Move Forward party, the reformist successor to the now defunct Future Forward party.
The two parties that support incumbent prime minister and former general Prayuth Chan-Ocha, The United Thai Nation Party and Palan Pracharath Party, were polling with a combined 16 per cent.
Paetongtarn, however, appears to be in second place in terms of preferred candidate for prime minister, trailing Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the Move Forward Party, by just under 30 per cent.
Prayuth, in comparison, garnered just over 6.5 per cent support for another term.
Prayuth for his part has said that he expects that there will be no further coups following the May 14 election.
He was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying “Who will stage a coup? … I already said a long time ago that the [2014] coup is the last. There should be no coup again.”
Grandfather in Exile
Both Thaksin and Yingluck were ousted by military coups in 2006 and 2014 respectively, and both have lived in exile since their ouster.
Thaksin in a Twitter post announcing the birth of “Thasin”, as his newest grandchild has been nicknamed, lamented that all seven of his grandchildren had been born while he was in exile.
เช้าวันนี้ ผมดีใจมากที่ได้หลานคนที่ 7 เป็นชาย ชื่อ ธาษิณ จากน้องอิ๊งค์ แพทองธาร หลานทั้ง 7 คน คลอดในขณะที่ผมต้องอยู่ต่างประเทศ ผมคงต้องขออนุญาตกลับไปเลี้ยงหลาน เพราะผมอายุจะ 74 ปี กรกฎานี้แล้ว พบกันเร็ว ๆ นี้ ครับ ขออนุญาตนะครับ
— Thaksin Shinawatra (@ThaksinLive) May 1, 2023
Thaksin said he was happy to welcome his seventh grandchild, but mentioned that all his grandchildren were born while he was abroad and said he wanted to ask for permission to return to take care of them because he will be 74 in July.
Thaksin’s exile is self-imposed, believed to be due to his desire to avoid a lengthy jail term due to several cases brought against him after he was ousted in 2006. Thai PBS World lists his expected jail sentence at about 10 years.
Analysts quoted by the Bangkok Post were sceptical about the news of Thaksin’s proposed return, with several suggesting that it was a political move to check the growth in popularity of the Move Forward Party.
The Bangkok Post itself seemed to cast some doubt on his statement when, in a separate article, it listed the timeline of Thaksin’s exile, ending with:
“In 2010 he told red-shirt protesters who supported him that he would return to join them when “the first bullet is fired” at them. Bullets were then fired.”
Left unsaid was the fact that Thaksin did not return.
