Statsvetare: Dystert för partiet – bra för juntan

Yingluck Shinawatra (RTGS: Yinglak Chinnawat), född 21 juni 1967 i San Kamphaeng, Chiang Mai, är en thailändsk affärskvinna och politiker. Hon var Thailands premiärminister från den 5 augusti 2011 fram till den 7 maj 2014 då hon avsattes av Thailands Författningsdomstol. Hon är ledamot av Thailands underkammare sedan 3 juli 2011 och tillhör partiet Puea Thai. Hon är den första kvinnan i Thailand som har varit premiärminister. Yingluck är syster till telekom-miljardären och den tidigare thailändske premiärministern Thaksin Shinawatra, som lever i landsflykt i Montenegro, och har pratat om att utfärda en amnesti som gör det möjligt för honom att komma tillbaka till sin dotters bröllop.

Thaksin Shinawatra (Thai: ทักษิณ ชินวัตร; RTGS: Thaksin Chinnawat; pronounced [tʰák.sǐn t͡ɕʰīn.nā.wát]; Serbian: Taksin Šinavatra; born 26 July 1949) is a Thai businessman, politician, visiting professor, and fugitive from Thai justice. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987. He was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006. Thaksin founded the mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service and the IT and telecommunications conglomerate Shin Corporation in 1987, ultimately making him one of the richest people in Thailand. He founded the Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT) in 1998 and, after a landslide electoral victory, became prime minister in 2001. He was the first democratically elected prime minister of Thailand to serve a full term and was re-elected in 2005 by an overwhelming majority. Thaksin's government launched programs to reduce poverty, expand infrastructure, promote small and medium-sized enterprises, and extend universal healthcare coverage. Thaksin declared a "war on drugs" in which more than 2,500 people died and took a strong-arm approach against the separatist insurgency in the Muslim southern provinces. After selling shares of his corporation for more than a billion tax-free dollars to foreign investors, considerable criticism resulted. A citizens' movement against Thaksin, called People's Alliance for Democracy or "Yellow Shirts", launched mass protests, accusing him of corruption, abuse of power, and autocratic tendencies. Thaksin called snap elections that were boycotted by the opposition and invalidated by the Constitutional Court. Thaksin was overthrown in a military coup on 19 September 2006. His party was outlawed and he was barred from political activity. Thaksin has since lived in self-imposed exile except for a brief visit to Thailand in 2008. He was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for abuse of power. From abroad he has continued to influence Thai politics, through the People's Power Party that ruled in 2008, and its successor organisation Pheu Thai Party, as well as the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship or "Red Shirt" movement. His younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra was the prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014.

Prayut Chan-o-cha (sometimes spelt Prayuth Chan-ocha; Thai: ประยุทธ์ จันทร์โอชา; IPA: [prā.jút tɕān.ʔōː.tɕʰāː]; born 21 March 1954) is a Thai politician, retired Royal Thai Army general officer, head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), and concurrently serves as the Prime Minister of Thailand. The council, which he appointed himself along with other junta members, has the power to name the prime minister and control prime ministerial positions. Prayut is a former Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army, the post he held from October 2010 to October 2014. After his appointment as army chief, Prayut was characterised as a strong royalist and an opponent of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Considered a hardliner within the military, he was one of the leading proponents of military crackdowns on the Red Shirt demonstrations of April 2009 and April–May 2010. He later sought to moderate his profile, talking to relatives of protesters who were killed in the bloody conflict, and co-operating with the government of Yingluck Shinawatra who won parliamentary elections in July 2011. During the political crisis that began in November 2013 and involved protests against the caretaker government of Yingluck, Prayut claimed that the army was neutral, and would not launch a coup. However in May 2014, Prayut staged a military coup against the government and then assumed control of the country as NCPO leader. He later issued an interim constitution granting himself sweeping powers and giving himself amnesty for staging the coup. In August 2014, a military-dominated national legislature, whose members were handpicked by Prayut, non-democratically appointed him Prime Minister.After seizing power, Prayut deemed it necessary to crackdown on dissent for the sake of public order. He introduced the “twelve values” that he formulated based on traditional Thai values and suggested that these values be included in school lessons. Certain measures were implemented to limit public discussions about democracy and criticism of the government that might instigate further hatred and conflict.Prayut will be Phalang Pracharat's candidate for prime minister in the upcoming election.