Yingluck Shinawatra was elected as Thailand’s first woman prime minister on Sunday. Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party won the majority of the country’s 500 seat parliament with 262 votes as of Sunday night. Official results of the election will come in July 12. This was the first general election since 2007.
Shinawatra stated that her primary goals for her term are to work toward of process of national reconciliation to improve class and political divisions, improve economic issues by increasing the minimum wage, and guaranteeing access to free education.
Shinawatra is sister to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted from his position in a 2006 military coup. She promises to bring back similar populist policies to those of her brother. She received an undergraduate degree in politics from the northern city of Chiang Mai and a masters degree in politics from Kentucky State University in the United States.
