Thaksin’s Daughter Buys Luxury House in Hong Kong

By DIKKY SINN and AMBIKA AHUJA

HONG KONG — The youngest daughter of Thailand's fugitive ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has bought a luxury home in Hong Kong, according to public records, in the latest sign the family is expanding its base in the city to monitor the Thai political situation.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 22, signed an agreement last month to buy the three-story house at the King's Park Hill development for 45 million Hong Kong dollars (US $5.81 million), according to land registry records obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The daughter began negotiating the deal for the property on a wooded hill on the Kowloon peninsula in early November before her father and mother, Pojaman Shinawatra, divorced, said Henry Ng, the real estate agent who handled the transaction.

Ng said he never met the buyer, who signed the agreement Nov. 24, and only dealt with her representatives. The entire transaction, which usually takes two to three months, has yet to be finalized but the house is considered bought, he said.

The agent said the 3,313 square foot (307 square meter) home was bought at a bargain price that was 20.8 percent lower than the previous transaction in the estate. He said since the deal, the price has already risen by 11 percent to about HK$50 million.

Since Thaksin was ousted from power in a 2006 military coup, he has been living in exile mostly in London, Hong Kong and Dubai. He also made one five-month return to Thailand early this year. Hong Kong has been one of the former telecom tycoon's most popular perches for observing the political scene in Thailand, just a three-hour flight away.

Forbes Asia magazine put Thaksin's estimated net worth at US $400 million in July after Thai authorities froze more than US $2 billion of his family's assets pending the outcome of corruption cases against him.

He was sentenced in absentia by a Thai court in October to two years in prison for violating a conflict of interest law while he was prime minister. He had his British visa revoked last month while he was traveling.

Meanwhile Thailand's opposition Democrat Party continued to insist Tuesday that it has enough support in Parliament to name its leader, Abhisit Vejjajiva, as the country's fifth prime minister in little over two years.

Next week's expected vote comes after a court banned the elected ruling party last week. The verdict followed months of turmoil, including last month's weeklong takeover of the capital's two airports by demonstrators who oppose Thaksin's continued influence in Thai politics.

The Democrats face off against the Phuea Thai Party—the second reincarnation of Thaksin's original party. After Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and his Thai Rak Thai party banned, his supporters formed the People's Power Party, which won elections last December to restore democracy.

However, the Constitutional Court last week ruled that the PPP committed fraud in the election, and forced its leader, Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, out of office.

There is still much time before the vote for loyalties to shift among the country's notoriously fickle politicians, who are often enticed with offers of cash and Cabinet positions.

But other forms of pressure were also being brought to bear.

An unexploded M-26 grenade was found about 50 yards (meters) from the house of Boonjong Wongtrairat, a lawmaker from the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima who switched his support from Phuea Thai to the Democrats.

"There were also two coffins found outside the house and a note that he has no political ideology," said police Lt-Col Panpichit Sihupond. Boonjong was not at home at the time.

Thaksin supporters also held rowdy but small and nonviolent demonstrations outside of the homes of the other defecting politicians in Khon Kaen province, also in the northeast.

While several of the ruling party's lawmakers were banned from politics, most others retained their seats in Parliament and migrated immediately to the new Phuea Thai Party, established in anticipation of the court's action, so they could try to form a new government.

However, members of four factions that had supported Somchai's government defected to the Democrats.

Sanan Kajornprasart, acting deputy prime minister and a spokesman for the defectors, pledged support for Abhisit and said the Democrats' coalition commands the loyalty of at least 240 lawmakers.

Supporters of the Phuea Thai have said the army pressured lawmakers to switch sides.

The Democrats earlier claimed they had the support of 260 lawmakers —166 of its own members and the rest defectors — which would give them a majority in the 480-seat House of Representatives.