Bangkok, Aug 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) For the first time after more than 15 years in self-exile, ousted former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra returned to the country on Tuesday amidst an ongoing political turmoil.
Thaksin, the 74-year-old head of a famed political dynasty and a former owner of Manchester City Football Club, was in office from 2001 until he was ousted in a military coup in 2006 while in New York attending a UN meeting, reports CNN.
He returned to Thailand briefly before fleeing the country in 2008 over a corruption conviction and could face up to 10 years in prison upon his arrival.
Video showed Thaksin hugging his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who also lives in self-exile, before boarding a plane in Singapore.
<
p class="paragraph inline-placeholder" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/paragraph_AD3F60B1-7B83-1A98-38A5-1B11509173B7@published" data-editable="text" data-component-name="paragraph" data-analytics-observe="off">Yingluck was elected as Thailand’s first female Prime Minister in 2011, but was dismissed in 2014 after the Constitutional Court ruled she had abused her position.
Thaksin's long-awaited arrival comes on the same day as a vote in Parliament to choose a new Prime Minister, which will finally break a political deadlock more than three months after the popular Move Forward Party won the general elections, CNN reported.
The Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai party, which came second in the May election, will on Tuesday nominate real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin as the next Prime Minister.
On Monday, Pheu Thai struck a deal with its former military rivals in a bid to secure enough parliamentary votes to form a government.
In 2014, former army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power from the Pheu Thai government, and Yingluck followed Thaksin into self-imposed exile.
Prayut has ruled Thailand since, announcing in July that he would not seek re-election and will retire from politics.
Source: IANS
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