Yingluck Shinawatra

A successful businesswoman, and now with a budding political career, Yingluck Shinawatra is following in the footsteps of her more famous brother, Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

She is the number one party list candidate for the main opposition Pheu Thai ("for Thais") political party, and so a frontrunner in the general election set for 3 July.
Yet Ms Yingluck, 43, has never before run for office nor held a government post, and critics have been quick to point out her inexperience.
Her primary political qualification seems to be the fact she is the youngest sister of Mr Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.
Despite living in self-imposed exile in Dubai, he still effectively controls the Pheu Thai party.
Ms Yingluck is there to marshal the Thaksin faithful - the many millions who still want their former leader back - and to woo the undecided with a new look attached to an old name.
She is mobilising that base through democratic elections as opposed to the prolonged - sometimes bloody - street protests that Thailand has witnessed in recent years.
That could give Mr Thaksin a basis on which to bargain a future role in the country, despite a two-year jail sentence for a conflict of interest conviction.
Feminine charms Ms Yingluck is the ninth child in a highly political family.
She has two degrees in politics - undergraduate from the northern city of Chiang Mai, her family's powerbase, and masters from Kentucky State University in the US.

Yingluck Shinawatra has appeared more natural with ordinary Thais than her opponents

Until now, she has pursued a corporate career, formerly as managing director of AIS, the telecommunications firm her brother founded, and managing director of SC Asset Company, a family firm involved in property.
In her bid to become Thailand's first female prime minister, Ms Yingluck said she planned to use her attributes as a woman to promote national reconciliation and asked for the chance to prove herself.
"I am ready to fight according to the rules and I ask for the opportunity to prove myself. I ask for your trust as you used to trust my brother," she told a party meeting in Bangkok.
"I will utilise my femininity to work fully for our country," she said.
Ms Yingluck's much-lauded feminine charms have indeed electrified the campaign trail.
When she smiles and bends at the knees to exchange a wai - the prayer-like gesture of respect - with a wizened grandmother or weathered farmer, people seem to warm to her.
Her young son, Pipe, has also appeared with her at election rallies.

Yingluck Shinawatra

• Born 21 June 1967
• Youngest of nine children; elder brother is former PM Thaksin Shinawatra
• Graduate in political science and business administration, master's degree, Kentucky State University
• Married to businessman Anusorn Amornchat; has one son
• Ex-president of Advanced Info Service (AIS), the country's largest mobile phone operator, before it was sold to Singapore's Temasek Holdings
• Currently president, SC Asset, a family business; she also manages the finances for Thaksin's Pheu Thai Party
• First woman to run for the country's highest political office

Behind the scenes, as commentators have been at pains to point out, she is being advised by a formidable array of veteran politicians, including some of the traditional power-horses of Thai politics.

They appear to have decided on a campaign strategy that shows off their candidate's charm and limits as much as possible any risk of straying into difficult territory.
She is very careful to stay on message. While she may not know all the right answers yet, she "is smart enough not to be trapped into a compromising answer", notes the Bangkok Pundit website.
The other key technique has been for Ms Yingluck to say only pleasant things about her opponents - a tactic that throws off her male competitors.
"It is hard to portray her as the face of evil when that face may not seem so bad to the so-called silent majority who may like her reconciliatory tone," comments the Bangkok Pundit.
Looking for original ideas or a new policy platform from Ms Yingluck is not necessary - she is the product of a well-oiled political machine, which has been winning landslide election victories in different guises since 2001.
Pheu Thai is ahead in the opinion polls - not enough to suggest it could win an outright majority - but Ms Yingluck's connection to her elder brother appears to be a help rather than a hindrance.
Her popularity at the hustings will no doubt be a factor in the arrangements to be decided after the voting is done.

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