Bangkok, June 29.─ This month's two by-election wins for Thailand's Puea Thai opposition party have demonstrated, once again, the staying power of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Puea Thai candidates in Sakhon Nakhorn and Si Sa Ket provinces won landslide victories over their rivals in votes held June 21 and Sunday, respectively.
The Puea Thai party is a reincarnation of the People Power Party, disbanded in December, which was a reincarnation of the Thai Rak Thai party - Thaksin's original party whose pro-poor populist policies clinched him a dual-term premiership from 2001 to 2006.
The Thai Rak Thai was disbanded by a constitutional tribunal ruling in May 2007 when Thaksin and 110 of his party executives were also banned from politics for five years.
The ban has not stopped Thaksin, who has lived in self-imposed exile since August, from being a central figure in the political chaos that has engulfed Thailand over the past two years.
The victories of the pro-Thaksin party in the by-elections were the latest proof of Thaksin's ongoing popularity ...
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