PUBLISHED : 19 Aug 2023 at 11:20
Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will return to Thailand on Tuesday, his youngest daughter Paetongtarn “Ung Ing” Shinawatra announced on social media on Saturday.
“On Tueday of Aug 22 at 9am, I will be at Don Mueang (airport) to welcome my father Thaksin,” Ms Paetongtarn, one of the Pheu Thai Party’s three prime ministerial candidates, wrote on her Instagram and X, former known as Twitter, on Saturday morning.
She also posted a message saying her father’s planned return to his home country was not cancelled but delayed, adding that this is not a nonsense statement.
On Thaksin’s 74th birthday on July 26, Ms Paetongtarn announced that her father was set to arrive at Don Mueang airport on Aug 10, but political observers, including Chuvit Kamolvisit and Jatuporn Prompan, insisted they had reasons to believe his homecoming plan was nothing but hot air. This prompted a reaction from Ms Paetongtarn, who said Mr Chuvit’s comment was ‘nonsense’.
On Aug 5, the fugitive former prime minister posted on X, saying he was postponing his return from self-exile for a couple of weeks, as a doctor wanted him to undergo health checkups.
Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon, has been living in self-imposed exile since being overthrown by a military coup on Sept 19, 2006.