Thailand's parliament has voted to approve the daughter of the divisive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra as the new prime minister, two days after a court removed the last incumbent over an ethics violation.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, who is the leader of the Pheu Thai party, becomes the country's youngest ever to hold the office.
Ms Paetongtarn is Thailand's second female prime minister and the country's third leader from the Shinawatra family, after her father and her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra.
In her first comments as prime minister, she said she had been saddened and confused by her predecessor Srettha Thavisin's dismissal and decided it was time to step up.
"I talked to Srettha, my family and people in my party and decided it was about time to do something for the country and the party," she told reporters.
"I hope I can do my best to make the country go forward. That's what I'm trying to do. Today I'm honoured and I feel very happy."
The Constitutional Court on Wednesday removed Mr Srettha from office after finding him guilty of a serious ethical breach regarding his appointment of a cabinet member who was jailed in connection with an alleged bribery attempt.
Mr Thaksin, meanwhile, was formally indicted earlier this year for allegedly insulting the royalty and other charges linked to a 2015 media interview.
A criminal court subsequently granted bail to the billionaire, who has said he is innocent, and instructed him to appear at an evidence review and hearing on August 19.
The 74-year-old returned to Thailand to a rock star's reception last August after 15 years of self-imposed exile.
Mr Thaksin was the first Thai politician ever to win an overall majority of seats.
He is one of Thailand's most popular but divisive political figures and was ousted by a military coup in 2006.
He is widely seen as a de facto leader of Pheu Thai, the latest in a string of parties linked to him. His residual popularity and influence is a factor behind the political support for Ms Paetongtarn.
Adam Simpson, a senior lecturer in International Studies at the University of South Australia, said Ms Paetongtarn being elected prime minister demonstrated Mr Thaksin's enduring influence within Pheu Thai but the party's future electoral prospects looked grim.
"While the electorate still prefers Pheu Thai and Thaksin's family over the military-backed parties and the Democrats, much of the population has moved on from the accompanying nepotism and self-interest," he said.
The Constitutional Court last week dissolved the progressive Move Forward party (MFP), which won last year’s general election but was blocked from taking power. It quickly reformed under a new name, the People's Party (PP).
Dr Simpson said the MFP/PP offered a much more progressive and democratic vision for Thailand.
"Pheu Thai's abandonment of its agreement with MFP last year will be remembered by much of the voting population," he said.
"The new People's Party are likely to win by an even greater margin at the next election.
"At some point, it's likely conservative forces will be forced to allow them to form government."
Ms Paetongtarn was confirmed by 319 votes in favour, 145 against, and 27 abstentions with members of parliament spending about an hour casting their votes in public one by one.
She will officially become prime minister with a royal endorsement, though the timing of that step wasn’t known.
She was voted in despite not holding an elected office, which the law doesn't require of prime ministerial candidates.
Ms Paetongtarn's public entry into politics came in 2021 when the Pheu Thai party announced she would lead an inclusion advisory committee.
She was appointed as leader of Pheu Thai last year, after she was named one of its three prime ministerial candidates ahead of the polls.
When Ms Paetongtarn was on the campaign trail for Pheu Thai, she acknowledged her family ties but insisted she was not just her father's proxy.
"It's not the shadow of my dad. I am my dad's daughter, always and forever, but I have my own decisions," she told a reporter.
However, her father's shadow is too big to be dismissed and her work will not be easy with him continuing to call political shots for Pheu Thai, said Petra Alderman, a political research fellow at England's University of Birmingham.
"Thaksin was a political force to reckon with, but he was also a liability," she said.
"He has a tendency to overplay his political hand, so serving in his shadow has never been easy."
The coalition under the leadership of Ms Paetongtarn could strengthen their unity because she possesses something that Mr Srettha does not, a direct line to her powerful father who has the final say, said Napon Jatusripitak, a political science researcher at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
"In a strange way, it creates a clear chain of command and curbs factionalism," he said.
"Paetongtarn will be given clear jurisdictions on where she can exercise her own agency and where it is a matter between her father and the coalition members."
ABC/wires
