Thai Rak Thai Party

The Thai Rak Thai Party was a Thai political party that operated between 1998 and 2007.

History

The Thai Rak Thai Party was founded on July 15th, 1998 by Thaksin Shinawatra.

In the January 6th, 2001 general election, the party won with 40% of the vote. (The incumbent Democrat Party won only 25%.) Thaksin became prime minister on February 9th, 2001.

The party also won the February 6th, 2005 and April 2nd, 2006 general elections (with about 60% of the vote in each). However, the latter was in the context of a mass protest of the election. In many southern districts the non-abstaining vote was too low to certify results (as 20% turnout is required). Both King Rama IX and the Constitutional Court declared the election invalid. New elections were planned in October.

On September 19th, 2006, the royal army overthrew the elected government. Thaksin was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York City at the time. In his absence, Chaturon Chaisang served as interim party leader.

On May 30th, 2007, the Constitutional Court declared that the Thai Rak Thai Party was outlawed and leaders (including Chaturon) were banned from government. In anticipation of this, Thaksin founded the Pheu Thai Party.

Leadership

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