Thailand’s new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra finalised her new Cabinet yesterday, leaving out controversial leaders of the “Red Shirt” protest movement which helped propel her to power.
Yingluck took office on Monday with a vow to reunite the troubled nation after years of turmoil following the ouster of her brother Thaksin, including mass street protests by his Red Shirt supporters last year that turned deadly.
Several Red Shirt leaders were elected as lawmakers with Yingluck’s Puea Thai party but missed out on Cabinet appointments that could have angered Thaksin’s foes in military, government and palace circles.
Yingluck, a 44-year-old political novice, was elected as Thailand’s first female premier in a parliamentary vote on Friday.
She swept to election victory last month with the support of her brother Thaksin, hailed by many rural Thais for his populist policies while in power but loathed by the Bangkok-based ruling elite.