Thailand has a new prime minister.
Anutin Charnvirakul won a total of 311 votes, far exceeding the 247 required majority from the House of Representative’s 492 active members.
He and his government are expected to take office in a few days after obtaining a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
He succeeds Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed by court order as prime minister last week after being found guilty of ethics violations over a politically compromising phone call with neighbouring Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen.
Born to an influential politician-businessman, Anutin, 58, studied at an all-boys private school in Bangkok before heading to university in the United States for an engineering degree.
After working for his father’s construction company, he entered politics as deputy minister of public health under previous prime minster Thaksin Shinawatra in 2004.
He rose to the rank of Health Minister and was widely praised within the country for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and championing Thailand‘s legalisation of cannabis in 2022.
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Political analyst Napon Jatusripitak said Mr Anutin and his party were a rare bridge spanning powerful family clans that dominate provincial politics and sections of the influential royalist-conservative establishment.
“He is very much a pragmatic politician, cut from the same cloth as Thaksin Shinawatra,”
Outside of business and politics, Anutin’s interests include collecting Buddhist amulets and recreational flying, which he sometimes uses to facilitate emergency organ donations.
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