Thaksin Shinawatra Leaves Thailand As Parliament Prepares To Vote For New Prime Minister

Billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra departed Thailand for a medical checkup in Dubai late Thursday just before the parliament convened on Friday to pick a new Prime Minister to replace his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed from the top job by the Constitutional Court last week.

The former Prime Minister said on social media platform X that he initially planned to fly to Singapore on his private jet but decided to divert the flight to Dubai following delays at the Thai immigration.

“There are bone and lung doctors who have treated me for a long time in Dubai and I will also get a chance to visit friends in Dubai who I have not seen for over two years,” Thaksin said in his post on X.

Thaksin, 76, spent most of his time in Dubai during more than a decade in self-exile after being ousted in a military coup in 2006. He fled Thailand two years later amid charges of corruption and abuse of power during his regime.

Upon his return in 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison but received a royal pardon and spent six months in a hospital before being released on parole. Thaksin said he will be back next week to face the Supreme Court, which is set to rule Sept. 9 on whether he faked his medical condition to avoid jail time. Last month, he was acquitted in a separate case of breaching the country’s strict royal defamation laws.

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Thaksin’s sudden departure comes as Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul is widely tipped to be elected by members of parliament to be the next Prime Minister, succeeding Paetongtarn.

Paetongtarn was removed from her post for ethical violation after just one year in office, fueling political uncertainty in the Southeast Asia nation. The court found that the comments she made criticizing a Thai army commander during a call in June with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen (a recording of which was leaked to the media) violated ethical standards and undermined the Prime Minister’s office.

The youngest daughter of influential former premier Thaksin Shinawatra—among the wealthiest in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion—is the third member of the Shinawatra family to be booted out before finishing a term. Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, was dismissed by the Constitutional Court in 2014 after three years in office on charges of abuse of power.