Ex-PM keen for sister to come back

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra hopes his sister, ex-premier Yingluck Shinawatra, can return to Thailand this year so they can make merit together during Songkran holidays next year.

Thaksin made the comment during his merit-making trip to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai yesterday. His sister Yingluck, who was the country’s only female prime minister, lives in exile.

Yingluck fled in 2017, shortly before the court sentenced her to five years in jail for ignoring corruption in a rice-pledging scheme that ran up at least 500 billion baht in losses.

In March, the Supreme Court’s Criminal Case Division for Holders of Political Positions acquitted Yingluck and five others of malfeasance and collusion in awarding a 240-million-baht campaign to promote her government’s 2-trillionbaht infrastructure projects, citing insufficient evidence.

However, a warrant f or her arrest in the rice-pledging case remains active.

“Premier Poo [Yingluck] wished me a happy Songkran before my trip to Chiang Mai. I told her to make merit with me next year during Songkran,” Thaksin said.

Regarding the return of his sister, he said: “I have no idea when she will come back. But she really wants to come back as I always did.

“I have no idea how she will come home here. But her case was not as complicated as mine, as she was hit with just one charge,” he said.

He also said he hoped Yingluck could return some time this year.

Asked about rumours the Democrat Party would join the government through Thaksin’s help, he said: “Really?”

“Everyone wants to work for the country, but there are only 36 cabinet seats including the premier’s. I am not sure about the possibility.”

He also said he only had coffee with Democrat members.

Dech-it Khaothong, the Democrat’s secretary-general, used to be a former candidate of the Thai Rak Thai Party, a predecessor of the ruling Pheu Thai Party.