Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister of Thailand.
Contents
History
Thaksin founded the Thai Rak Thai Party in 1998, and led it to a landslide victory in the January 6th, 2001 general election. He became prime minister on January 9th.
It was revealed by National Counter Corruption Commission charges that Thaksin had hid stock assets by transferring ownership. The Constitutional Court found in his favor, but the scandal sparked mass protests.
Thaksin called for snap elections on April 2nd, 2006. Opposition parties signalled their intent to abstain from the election. As a result, 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 seized power in a coup. Thaksin was attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York City at the time.
Thaksin returned to Thailand only on February 28th, 2008 to face charges brought against him by the coup leaders. He was allowed to briefly travel to the UK, but was barred from subsequent travels. He violated the terms of his bail to attend the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There he began appealing for political asylum to a number of countries, and he has not since returned to Thailand.