Thaksin confirms Yingluck won’t miss Songkran

Thaksin Shinawatra has come to terms that he will not return home in time for Songkran festival this year as he had previous alluded.

Shortly after returning from nearly 17 years of self-exile in August, Thaksin indicated that he intended to bring Yingluck back to Thailand in time to welcome the traditional new year together.

On Sunday, he finally conceded his sister had to wait a little longer, stating the timing for her return was not right. “A wish and reality are sometimes different,” the former prime minister told reporters.

Thaksin declined to elaborate on what was still preventing him from forcing Yingluck home, after years of exile and much of it in London.

Thaksin also announced that he would observe Songkran in Chiang Mai from April 12-13.

Yingluck left the country in 2017 just before the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions sentenced her for dereliction of duty in failing to act against corruption in her government’s rice-pledging policy while she was in office as prime minister.