Self-exiled ex-PM Thaksin tweets he wants to return to Thailand by July
Thai Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra gestures during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Japan, 23 August 2011. File picture by EPA
BANGKOK: Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in a tweet that he has decided to return to Thailand by July and would follow the legal process.
He posted the message on Twitter days ahead of the May 14 election, reported Thai News Agency (TNA).
He said he would return home, before his birthday in July this year, to raise his grandchildren.
In his remark, he asks for permission to return home, saying he has been apart from his family for almost 17 years and that he was old now.
In another tweet, he said he would not be a burden to the Pheu Thai Party and his return would follow the legal process. It was his own decision.
Thaksin was born on July 26, 1949. He will turn 74 on his birthday this year.
Ousted in a military coup in 2006, he lives abroad in self-exile to avoid charges of corruption and abuse of power which he said were politically motivated.
On May 1, he posted that he was happy to have a 7th grandchild born to his daughter, Paetongtarn, and that he wanted to return home to take care of his grandchildren.
Thaksin's youngest daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who delivered a baby boy earlier this month, is Pheu Thai Party's prime ministerial candidate who is leading in preliminary opinion surveys.
-- BERNAMA
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