Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Thai lawmakers selected former Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul as the country's new prime minister on Friday, a week after Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was removed from office over a leaked phone call.
Charnvirakul, 58, who served as the number two in Shinawatra's coalition government, and the two prime ministers before her, was able to win sufficient support by pulling his conservative Thai Pride Party from the power-sharing administration led by Shinawatra's populist Pheu Thai party.
However, with just 69 of the 500 seats in the National Assembly, he will need to cut a deal with either the People's Party or PT, the two largest parties.
His election delivers a further shock to the powerful Shinawatra family's political fortunes after Paetongtarn became the fifth prime minister to be removed in 17 years by the country's constitutional court with her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, reported Thursday night to be aboard a private jet en route to Dubai.
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