Thai MPS elect first female leader

Thai MPs have elected Yingluck Shinawatra as the country’s first female prime minister.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Aug 2011, 07:00 BST

The lower house of parliament elected the 44-year-old businesswoman with 296 of the legislature’s 500 members voting in Ms Yingluck’s favour. Three members voted against and 197 abstained.

The vote comes a month after Ms Yingluck’s party won a landslide victory in elections.

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Ms Yingluck will become Thailand’s 28th prime minister, and the fifth since her brother, former Manchester City FC boss Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled in a 2006 military coup.

Before Ms Yingluck can officially assume power, King Bhumibol Adulyadej must endorse her in a separate ceremony.

Ms Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party swept the country’s July 3 elections, winning an absolute majority of 265 seats in the 500-member lower house. Pheu Thai has consolidated those gains, building alliances with smaller parties to form a 300-seat coalition.

Related topics:MPsThai