Anutin Charnvirakul was reelected Thailand’s prime minister on Thursday after sailing through a parliamentary vote, winning a fresh mandate that could usher in a rare period of stability for a country long plagued by political drama and turmoil.
The Bhumjaithai Party’s Anutin led from the start in what turned out to be a rout of his biggest rival, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, leader of the progressive People’s Party, the surprise runner-up last month in an election it had been widely expected to win.
Anutin becomes the first Thai premier to be voted back to office in two decades, underlining the upheaval that has dogged Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy.
In a stunning turnaround in fortunes for a party that had struggled to make its mark in Thai politics, Bhumjaithai scored a decisive election victory over its reformist rival after capitalising on a wave of nationalism arising out of military conflicts with Cambodia last year.
Much of Anutin’s success comes from his opportunism last year in seizing on the decline of the once dominant Pheu Thai party, first by abandoning its coalition government, then manoeuvring swiftly to form his own after a court sacked a second prime minister in the space of just over a year.
