Thaksin will fly back to Bangkok next Tuesday, says his daughter

“I will greet my father Thaksin at 9am on Tuesday, August 22, at Don Mueang Airport,” Paetongtarn said in an Instagram post on Saturday morning.

Paetongtarn, who is one of the Pheu Thai Party’s three prime ministerial candidates, has just returned from a trip to Dubai, where she and her children met Thaksin.

She has met her father overseas at least three times since the May 14 general election – in late May, in early July, and a few days ago in Dubai.

Paetongtarn’s meetings with Thaksin often took place while Pheu Thai was involved in negotiations over the formation of the next government, but she has said they were purely familial.

It was not the first time that Paetongtarn gave an exact date of her father’s impending homecoming. She said on Thaksin’s birthday on July 26 that he would fly back to Don Mueang International Airport on August 10.

But just days before the planned return, Thaksin postponed it, saying he had to undergo a medical checkup.

Thaksin, 74, began his tenure as prime minister in February 2001 and served until September 2006, when he was ousted in a military coup. He has lived in self-imposed exile since fleeing Thailand in August 2008 to avoid criminal cases stemming from his time in power.

Thaksin has publicly announced plans to return to Thailand 20 times over the past 15 years.

He last made the statement on his birthday on July 26, confirming Paetongtarn’s Facebook post that he would fly to Don Mueang International Airport on August 10.

Thaksin first mentioned a plan to return to Thailand in January 2009, just months after he fled the country. He told red-shirt protesters in a video-link broadcast that he would return to lead them for a “march into Bangkok” if security troops opened fire.

Three years later, he phoned a gathering of red-shirt supporters in Surin province, telling them that he was about to “return home elegantly”.

After a long break, Thaksin mentioned his planned return again in January 2021, in a video media interview. He said that he wanted to return to take care of his grandchildren.

Over the past three years, Thaksin has made 17 public announcements about plans to return home – four times in 2021, eight in 2022, and five this year. Most announcements were made through broadcasts of video chats with Thai-based aides.

On March 24, Thaksin told Japanese media that he was ready to return and serve his prison term in Thailand regardless of the results of the May 14 general election.

Many analysts said the announcement was aimed at wooing votes for Pheu Thai.

On May 9, just days before the election, Thaksin asked for permission to “come home to raise my grandchildren within July, before my birthday”. But once again, his plan did not materialise and his return was rescheduled to August 10.

Thaksin again delayed his return. He posted a social media message on August 5 saying that his planned return on August 10 would be postponed “no longer than two weeks”.