Thailand's Thaksin Faces Political Reckoning as Pheu Thai Falters

Former prime minister's grip on electoral politics has finally slipped, say analysts

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BANGKOK - When Mr Sakda Vicheansil, a lawmaker from western Thailand, announced his resignation from the ruling Pheu Thai Party in early September, his words reflected the extraordinary decline of the country's most dominant politician, Thaksin Shinawatra.

"Thai people across the country, and especially in my constituency - Kanchanaburi, Constituency 4 - are suffering," he said on Facebook. "The government has completely failed to resolve their problems."

Former premier Thaksin, 75, has run a populist vote-winning machine in South-east Asia's second-largest economy for a quarter of a century, but his grip on electoral politics has finally slipped, analysts said.

Outmanoeuvred by a smaller former coalition partner, and with a daughter sacked as prime minister and his once-dominant party desperately asking the King to endorse a snap election that it would struggle to win, billionaire Thaksin is on the ropes.

"For all intents and purposes, the Shinawatra family is politically spent," said political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.

Six premiers, either from the family or backed by it, have been pushed out of power by court decisions or military coups - the latest being Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed by the Constitutional Court on Aug 29.