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Lawmakers officially pass Thaksin’s sister as leader of nation after her party won elections in July Thai lawmakers have elected Yingluck Shinawatra as the country’s first female prime minister on Friday, setting the stage for the 44-year-old political novice to take charge of a deeply divided nation wracked by turmoil since her brother was ousted in a 2006 coup. Before Yingluck can officially assume the post, however, King Bhumibol Adulyadej must endorse her in a separate ceremony expected within days. The vote comes a month after Yingluck’s Pheu Thai party swept the country’s 3 July elections, winning an absolute majority of 265 seats in the 500-member lower house of parliament. Since then, Pheu Thai has consolidated those gains, building alliances with smaller parties to form a 300-seat-strong coalition. But Thailand remains politically split, and Yingluck will face the immediate challenge of keeping the country clear of the sometimes violent unrest it has witnessed since the army toppled her now-exiled brother, Thaksin. To do so, she will have to navigate a delicate equilibrium between the coup-prone army and the elite establishment on one side, and on the other the so-called Red Shirt movement that helped vote her into office and wants to see justice meted out for the bloody military crackdown that ended its protests in Bangkok last year. Pheu Thai’s landslide victory has helped increase Thailand’s prospects for stability in the short term, but analysts say that honeymoon may only last a few months. “To reinforce the stability of her government, Yingluck must find a way to work in harmony with the military and the conservative powers,” said Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee, a professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. The party Yingluck heads is the latest incarnation of Thaksin’s original Thai Rak Thai party, which swept elections twice before Thaksin was overthrown. Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra guardian.co.uk