Paetongtarn ‘Ung-Ing”’ Shinawatra, the youngest daughter of jailed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, on Friday was elected the new leader of the Pheu Thai Party as widely expected.
The atmosphere was considered active for the extraordinary general meeting of Pheu Thai party on Friday as the important agenda was the election of the new leader to replace Dr Cholnan Srikaew who earlier resigned from the post. The meeting was also convened to elect the new executive committee.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin arrived at the party headquarters late morning. He greeted the journalists but gave no interview. He went straight to the meeting room at 7th floor of the party headquarters.
The meeting takes the whole morning and in the afternoon the election results were announced with the list of ne executive committee and new party leader. The result was widely expected that Paetongtarn, the leader of Pheu Thai Family and deputy chairwoman of the National Soft Power Strategy Committee was elected as the new party leader.
There are six deputy leaders, one party secretary general and three deputy secretaries general. There are overall 23 executive committees.
During her keynotes speech, Paetongtarn thanked the party members who entrusted her to take the position of Pheu Thai Party leader. She said it was a great honor because this was not just about forwarding an ideological mission. But it was about connecting confidence, stability and faith. She also thanked her father, Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, for allowing her to learn from him and being her inspiration in life. She said she realized that her new mission was sizeable and important, especially in the current volatile political context. She has a great confidence in the party, because it has a large number of well-qualified personnel with considerable experience and it would be able to bring the party back to the hearts of the people as the number one political party once again with sustainability.
Paetongtarn also praises the performance during the past two months of the government led by Mr Settha who is Prime Minister and Minister of Finance particularly the reducing of electricity and fuel costs. Bring down the electric train fare to 20-baht flat rate for the MRT Purple and Red lines. Helping Thai workers to return from Israel after the fighting erupted.
Most importantly, she said, the party will not abandon the old DNA of Pheu Thai party which was to materialize the policies announced during the political campaign. This DNA would be with Pheu Thai party and would be developed in accordance with the change of the generation.
Paetongtarn said “The new Pheu Thai party executive team must consider the lesson learned from the last general election and review the results to make sure that the future election will be better in order to bring our Pheu Thai party back to stand in the hearts of the people as the number one political party again with sustainability.”
“We will not abandon out Pheu Thai DNA which is to materialize the promises we made to the people during the election campaign. We will make the dream to become true. We will do the impossible to become possible. We will eliminate any contempt against the party with the undeniable outcome of performance,” said Paetongtarn. (TNA)
