📝 usncan Note: Anutin Charnvirakul Elected Thailand’s New Prime Minister
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Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul attends a press conference after securing the backing of opposition People’s Party to serve as Thailand’s next prime minister at the parliament in Bangkok on September 3, 2025.
AFP via Getty Images
Thailand’s parliament elected Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul as the country’s new prime minister, succeeding Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was removed from the top job by the Constitutional Court last week.
Anutin, 58, won after getting 311 votes during a session of the 492-seat House of Representatives, beating rival Chaikasem Nitisiri, who garnered 152 votes. Chaikasem is the candidate of the Pheu Thai Party, which is backed by former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, father of Paetongtarn.
Anutin’s nomination to the top post still requires endorsement from the Thai king before it becomes official. If confirmed, the conservative party politician, who has served several cabinets including Thaksin coup leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha, will be Thailand’s third prime minister in two years.
Paetongtarn was removed from the top post for ethical violation after just one year in office, fueling political uncertainty in the Southeast Asia nation. The Constitutional Court found that the comments she made criticizing a Thai army commander during a call in June with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen (a recording of which was leaked to the media) violated ethical standards and undermined the Prime Minister’s office.
Anutin was an executive at one of Thailand’s major contractors Sino-Thai Engineering and Construction, now under listed holding firm STECON Group before he entered politics in 2004.
Thaksin—among the wealthiest in Thailand with a net worth of $2.1 billion—had left Thailand for a medical checkup in Dubai late Thursday just before the parliament convened to pick a new Prime Minister. He spent most of his time in Dubai during more than a decade in self-exile after being ousted in a military coup in 2006. Upon his return in 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison but received a royal pardon and spent six months in a hospital before being released on parole.
The billionaire said on social media platform X that he would return next week in time to face the Supreme Court, which is set to rule Sept. 9 on whether he faked his medical condition to avoid jail time. Last month, he was acquitted in a separate case of breaching the country’s strict royal defamation laws.
