BANGKOK, Oct 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - One of Thailand's largest political 
parties, founded by ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, elected a new leader on 
Friday, the party said, following the resignation of his daughter, the former 
prime minister.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 39, stepped down as Pheu Thai party chief last week 
after a court removed her as prime minister in August over an ethics breach 
linked to a border dispute with Cambodia.

Analysts say her departure was a strategic move to shield Pheu Thai from 
potential legal challenges and could mark the end of the Shinawatra family's 
decades-long dominance in Thai politics.

Pheu Thai members elected Julapun Amornvivat, a former deputy finance 
minister, as their new leader, according to a livestream on the party's 
official Facebook page.

"I feel honoured to receive this privilege and thank all party members for 
their confidence," the MP from northern Chiang Mai province, a Pheu Thai 
stronghold, told reporters after the vote.

Julapun, 50, is the son of veteran politician Sompong Amornvivat, who served 
as deputy prime minister and led Pheu Thai in 2019.

He was among those promoting the party's flagship campaign policies ahead of 
the 2023 election, including a proposed 10,000-baht ($300) stimulus handout 
and the legalisation of casinos.

However, observers say that whoever leads Pheu Thai will remain under the 
influence of party patriarch Thaksin and his political dynasty.

The Shinawatra clan has been the key foe of Thailand's pro-military, pro-
royalty elite, who view their populist brand of politics as a threat to the 
traditional social order, for two decades.

Thaksin, who founded the first iteration of Pheu Thai in the late 1990s, was 
ousted as prime minister in a 2006 coup and then went into exile for more 
than a decade.

The 76-year-old is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption during 
his time in office.