Petangtarn Shinawatra is the new and youngest Prime Minister of Thailand

 Sretha Thavisin was ousted as Thailand's prime minister by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. Two days after that, the country's Parliament elected Petang Tarn Shinawatra as the new and youngest Prime Minister on Friday.

Let's find out about the new and youngest Prime Minister Petang Tarn and what exactly happened in Thailand:

40 senators of parliament filed a petition to remove Pheu Thai Party leader Sretha Thavisin as Prime Minister. Constitutional Court judges this year accepted the petition by a 6-3 vote.

He appointed Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer who was jailed for six months in 2008 for corruption and contempt of court charges against Sretha, as minister. Pichit was accused of trying to bribe court staff with 2 million baht ($55,218) in a bag.

The senators argued that Sretha had violated 'moral standards' by appointing the convicted Pichit as a minister.

Critics speculate that Pichit's association with Phew Thai Party founder and tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra (2007) helped him (Thaksin) become prime minister.

Sretha was formally removed by the Bangkok Constitutional Court on Wednesday. He is the fourth Prime Minister of Thailand to be ousted by the Constitutional Court in the last 16 years.

Who is the new prime minister?

Petangtarn (37) is the younger daughter of former prime minister and Phew Thai Party founder tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra (75). Deposed Prime Minister Sretha was also associated with the same political party.

Petangtarn was easily elected as Prime Minister yesterday. Because out of 493 seats in the parliament, his party and coalition seats are 314. He needed the support of at least half of the existing legislators to become prime minister. 319 votes were cast in favor of Petangtarn and 145 were cast against in the vote held yesterday in Parliament.

Petangtarn studied at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

Petangtarn also known as Ung-Ying. He entered politics three years ago. Earlier he helped run the family hotel business.

Petangtarn's political career began in 2021. At that time, he became the head of Phew Thai Party's Inclusion and Innovation Advisory Committee.

Two weeks before the 2023 elections, Petangtarn became the mother of a second child. He was a popular candidate in the election.

Petangtarn is the third person from the Thaksin family to ascend to the country's top post. His father, Thaksin, became Prime Minister in 2001 from the Thai Rock Thai Party. He remained in this position until he was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in 2011. In 2014, the Constitutional Court removed him from this post. Another military coup that same year plunged Thailand into political turmoil for several months.

After that incident, Thaksin and Yingluck both left the country and went into voluntary exile to avoid arrest. Thaksin returned to the country in August last year.

Now Petangtarn is set to take over as Thailand's youngest prime minister. Apart from that, she is also the second woman Prime Minister of the country. Before this, her cousin Yingluck Shinawatra served as the country's first female prime minister.

Current political situation

Petang Tarn was elected as the new prime minister amid a long-running power struggle between the military loyal to the royal family and populist factions associated with the Pheu Thai Party.

After seizing power in a military coup in 2014, army chief General Prayath Chan-o-cha said they intervened to end bitter political divisions and deadlock within the government. Three years later, in 2017, the military government enacted a new constitution.

The country was governed by the junta government until 2019. After a long delay, the first elections were held that year.

The Pheu Thai Party, under newly deposed Prime Minister Sretha, aligned itself with the military in 2023. It was this force that overthrew the Pheu Thai Party government in 2014.

Earlier, the self-proclaimed 'pro-democracy' Pheu Thai Party allied with the 'Move Forwards Party' (MFP). But three months after the elections in 2023, the MFP left the alliance.

MFP takes an important position on the monarchy. The party won a majority in parliament in the 2023 elections, but the military-backed Senate blocked its path to forming a government. Later Pheu Thai formed the government.

Then on August 7, the Constitutional Court dissolved the MFP and banned its executive board members from politics for 10 years. The party pledged to reform Thailand's draconian royal defamation laws.

What is the principle of Petangtarn?

Petangtarn campaigned for the post of prime minister last year. His promises at the time included reducing the cost of public transport in Bangkok, expanding healthcare coverage and doubling the daily minimum wage.

In his first term as prime minister, Petang Tarn will have to deal with the country's faltering economy, declining public support for his party, and the potential rise of the opposition, analysts say.