{"id":32296,"date":"2019-02-08T06:23:11","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T06:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32296"},"modified":"2019-02-08T06:23:11","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T06:23:11","slug":"princess-ubolratana-to-contest-thailand-elections-as-pm-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=32296","title":{"rendered":"Princess Ubolratana to contest Thailand elections as PM candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In an unprecedented move, Thailand<\/a>‘s Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi has been nominated as prime minister for the country’s long-delayed general elections<\/a> by Thai Raksa Chart, a party founded by allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The registration of the 67-year-old, the elder sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, as a candidate\u00a0on Friday means this is\u00a0the first time in the country’s history that a member of the royal family is to become directly involved in politics and run for office.<\/span><\/p>\n

The princess was stripped of her royal title when she married a US national in 1972. She returned to Thailand in the late 1990s after getting a divorce. Although her formal title was not restored, she is regarded and treated as royalty by people in Thailand.<\/p>\n

Ubolratana is also known as a long-time friend of the Shinawatra family, which has an influence on the March 24 election through its proxy political parties, although they have not fielded a family member directly this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The unpredictable nature of Thai politics just went up another level,”\u00a0Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay, reporting from Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, said.<\/span><\/p>\n

“This has never happened before in Thai politics; the royal family has always been seen as being above politics even though everyone knows that it’s the most powerful body in Thailand.”<\/p>\n

Separately, Prayuth Chan-ocha<\/a>, the head of Thailand’s military government,\u00a0<\/span>said in a statement on Friday he would also contest the elections as a prime ministerial candidate for the pro-army Palang Pracharat party<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Prayuth is the army chief who seized power after\u00a0the military toppled the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister,\u00a0<\/span>in a 2014 coup and made himself prime minister.<\/p>\n

Princess Ubolratana is expected to be one\u00a0<\/span>of his main opponents.<\/p>\n

Hay said Thaksin – who was also removed in a coup in 2006 – and Yingluck “ha<\/span>ve always been seen as being anti-establishment”. <\/span><\/p>\n

“Their supporters and the supporters of the elite have clashed many times over the past decade, so to now come to this stage to have a member of the royal family running to be potentially the prime minister for a party backed by the Shinawatras is definitely an intriguing development for Thai politics.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Thailand has been a constitutional monarchy since 1932 but the royal family has wielded great influence and commanded the devotion of millions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an unprecedented move, Thailand’s Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi has been nominated as prime minister for the country’s long-delayed general elections by Thai Raksa Chart, a party founded by allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The registration of the 67-year-old, the elder sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, as a candidate\u00a0on Friday means this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}