Prawit was one of the planners of the coup that saw the removal of Pheu Thai’s next prime minister in 2014, paetongtarn’s uncle Yingluck Shinawatra, opening the way for five years of strong military rule.
The 79-year-old is being investigated after being filmed slapping a female blogger in the face as she tried to question him.
Some people thought supporting the PPRP was a bargain due to the group’s close ties to senior military personnel, whose hostility toward Thaksin and his allies has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.
The Thai social landscape has long been dominated by a struggle for energy between Thaksin and the kingdom’s conventional pro-military, pro-royalist aristocracy.
The original telecoms tycoon and former Manchester City landlord have consistently won elections, only to have coups and court rulings overthrow their governments.
Like his sister, Thaksin was also kicked out by the troops in a revolution, in 2006.
The Constitutional Court dissolved the principal opposition’s Move Forward Party and fired prime minister Srettha Thavisin in the span of a year, making August another quarter of carnage.
With the market still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 crisis and the frequent storms threatening many of the kingdom’s regions, Srettha’s impeachment opened the door for Paetongtarn to take the top job.