San Francisco Frontiers - Five Thai PM candidates vie to fill power vacuum

A new leader could be voted in as soon as this week, but only those nominated by their parties as potential premiers in the last election in 2023 are eligible.

A streak of turmoil has seen many relegated, with the list whittled down to just five contenders:

- The Shinawatra's last man -

Chaikasem Nitisiri, 77, has spent most of his life in lecture halls and courtrooms, leaping late into politics after retiring as a state prosecutor.

Often photographed on the golf course, the soft-spoken septuagenarian served as justice minister from 2013 to 2014 under prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

He is now the last viable candidate loyal to the Pheu Thai party of the faltering Shinawatra dynasty, which has dominated Thai politics for two decades.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra -- daughter of dynasty patriarch Thaksin -- was ousted Friday by Thailand's Constitutional Court when it found she breached ministerial ethics in a border row with Cambodia.

But Pheu Thai is lobbying the opposition People's Party to back Chaikasem into office in a bid to keep their grip on power.

- The billionaire weed champion -

Construction tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul, 58, is also vying for the crucial support of the People's Party, which is this week meeting to weigh its options.

An avid pilot and street food gourmand, he has served as deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister -- in 2022 delivering on a promise to legalise recreational cannabis.

Charged with the tourist-dependant kingdom's Covid-19 response, he accused Westerners of spreading the virus and was forced to apologise after a backlash.

Anutin was once a close ally of the Shinawatra family, the key foe of the kingdom's traditional pro-military, pro-monarchy elite.

A reconciliation saw his Bhumjaithai party back Pheu Thai in a coalition after the 2023 election, only to abandon it -- with Anutin now pursuing the top job for himself.

- The songsmith coup-maker -

Prayut Chan-O-Cha masterminded Thailand's 2014 military coup, seizing power for nine years during which he penned a pop song titled "Returning Happiness to the People".

His junta ousted Thaksin's sister Yingluck, but was succeeded by Pheu Thai, in just one instance of the back-and-forth between the Shinawatra's populist movement and pro-establishment powers.

Prayut, 71, currently serves as Thailand's privy councillor and is eligible to serve as prime minister after being nominated by the ultra-conservative United Thai Nation Party (UTNP).

Aside from the coup, the former army officer is remembered for his brash manners -- spraying journalists with hand sanitiser and leaving a cardboard cut-out of himself to field awkward questions.

Counter-intuitively, he may emerge as a compromise candidate -- backed by factions maneuvring to block their more immediate rivals.

- The oil baron's son -

Pirapan Salirathavibhaga is also eligible to be prime minister, but stands to be overshadowed by fellow UTNP member Prayut.

Born to a family of Bangkok aristocrats, 66-year-old Pirapan is the son of on oil baron who founded one of Thailand's first petrol stations.

He served as justice minister in 2008 and was a key supporter of anti-corruption reforms, developing a nationalist brand decked in the red, blue and white of the Thai flag.

- The outside chance -

Bringing up the rear is Jurin Laksanawisit, considered an unlikely next premier but technically qualified to campaign for the job.

The 69-year-old Jurin was once a journalist at the Thai daily newspaper Matichon, writing witty commentary under the pen name "Oudda", which followed him into a three-decade career in public service.

But his Democratic Party has only 25 MPs, and would need to rally a huge amount of support in a deeply fractured parliament to get him over the line.

Q.Nelson--SFF