BANGKOK (AFP) - the youngest sister of the fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday that she would be standing as a candidate of the Party of the main opposition to Prime Minister in the July elections.
Appointment of Yingluck Shinawatra by the Puea Thai Party made her the first woman to run for high Government of the Thailand and confirms the centrality of Thaksin in the political landscape of the Kingdom.
"I am ready to fight the rules and request the opportunity to prove myself." Ask your confidence that you used to trust my brother, "she told a party meeting in Bangkok, attended by journalists."
"I will use my femininity to collaborate fully for our country."
Well that he lives abroad to escape a sentence of imprisonment for graft, Thaksin - ousted in a coup of State 2006 - is widely regarded as the leader of de facto Puea Thai Party, a view underscored by the appointment of sister politically inexperienced.
Thaksin is welcomed by a large number of rural and working-class Thai for its populist policies for the masses but hated by the elite based in Bangkok, which sees as corrupt, authoritarian and a threat to the monarchy, venerated.
The election of July 3 will prepare his sister against his arch-foe, current Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democratic Party-backed elite, in what should be a closely fought battle.
"Five years after the coup of there is a lot of missing persons still my brother and his policies." "I feel my family is indebted to the people and which is a key factor in my decision", she said.
At 43, the mother of one and prestigious business woman is three years younger than his rival Abhisit and - the youngest of the siblings Shinawatra nine - junior Thaksin of 18 years.
While it should attract the support of his loyalists in the North and Northeast, analysts say it could struggle to call for a broader base among those more skeptical about his controversial brother for support.
Related parties Thaksin won the most seats in the last four elections, but the decisions of the Court reversed the results of two recent polls, held after the former Tycoon was forced from power.
Puea Thai has broad support among the largely rural red shirts and the working class, whose anti-Government mass rallies in the capital of the year has led to the worst political unrest in Thailand for decades.
The Reds called snap polls to oust Abhisit, who they accuse of being a puppet non-elected of the army and the establishment as it assumed his functions in a parliamentary vote 2008 after a court has launched the previous Government.
One year on an armed repression against the protests of the Reds, in which more than 90 people have been killed in clashes between demonstrators and the armed forces, Thailand remains deeply divided.
Party of the educated at Oxford, oldest Abhisit, the Thailand receives most of its support of Bangkok and the South, but he did not win a general election in almost two decades.
Observers fear campaign that could see more violence after a Thai legislator Puea, Pracha Prasopdee, was killed in an attack last week that the Government seemed be politically motivated.
ABHISIT said he had appointed the head of the national police to ensure the safety of all parliamentary candidates — before polls, Think Tank International Crisis Group warned last month might bring fresh unrest.
Thursday, the red shirts plan to organize a demonstration in the capital to mark the first anniversary of the assault of the army on their basis of protest, which dispersed the rally.
In an interview published Monday in the Bangkok Post daily, Thaksin said Puea Thai and especially his followers of the red shirt, had suffered most from disorders of the country but he "forgive and forget".
"After the election, after Puea Thai WINS, it must be clear that no there is no retribution taken," he was quoted saying.
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