Asia-Pacific

Ex-Thai PM says no desire to return to job

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-07-04 17:47

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra speaks during a meeting near his home in Dubai, after voting in general elections ended in Bangkok July 3, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

DUBAI - Exiled former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Monday he had no wish to become prime minister again in the wake of a landslide election victory for his sister's opposition party.

Thaksin, a billionaire twice elected premier, was ousted in a 2006 coup.

"I don't want to be prime minister. I've been with the party too long. I want to retire," he told reporters out his house in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, where he has been living in exile.

Yingluck Shinawatra's election victory clears the way for her to roll out a long list of Thaksin-style programmes that could influence the direction of southeast Asia's second largest economy.

Thaksin said in Dubai that there might be some inflation in the first quarter of 2012 but it would be offset by growth.