Thai PM-in-waiting denies plan to visit Thaksin to discuss lineup

BANGKOK, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's elected prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra rejected as groundless reports that she planned to go to Hong Kong to meet her elder brother, the fugitive ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra, on Sunday to discuss the cabinet lineup.

Yingluck said on Friday morning that she is now busy working on drafting policies of the incoming government for delivering to Parliament.

"I don't have any plan to go to Hong Kong and will be in Bangkok," she said.


Analysts said that regardless of the fact that Thaksin now lives half the globe away in Dubai, the ousted premier is the de facto leader and masterful in decision-making in the party. Rumors spread that upcoming cabinet line-up rests with his decision.

Thaksin is the 23rd PM who was in the office from 2001-2006 but was overthrown by an army coup in September 2006. He was convicted by a court of corruption charges in 2008 and charged with terrorism in 2010. He is now living in self-imposed exile in Dubai.