Abhisit Vejjajiva (; , , ; born 3 August 1964) is a Thai politician who was the 27th prime minister of Thailand from 2008 to 2011. He was the leader of the Democrat Party from 2005 until he resigned following the party's weak performance in the 2019 election. He returned as leader of the party once again in October 2025, following party elections. As leader of the second largest party in the House of Representatives, he was also leader of the opposition – a position he held from 2005 to 2008 and again after his premiership until his party's en masse resignation from the House on 8 December 2013.
Born in England to Thai Chinese father, prof. Atthasit, and Siamese mother, Sodsai, Abhisit also holds British citizenship. He attended Eton College and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oxford. After his graduation he taught as an economics lecturer at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and Thammasat University. Abhisit was elected to the Thai House of Representatives at the age of 27 and served as minister to the Office of the Prime Minister under Chuan Leekpai from 1997 to 2001. He narrowly lost the 2003 Democrat Party leadership election, but unopposedly became the party's chairman two years later following the Democrats' defeat in the 2005 general election.
Abhisit was appointed prime minister of Thailand on 17 December 2008, after the Constitutional Court of Thailand removed Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat from office. At age 44, he was the country's youngest prime minister in more than 60 years.
Abhisit became premier during the Great Recession and rising domestic political tensions. As prime minister, he promoted a "People's Agenda", which focused primarily on policies affecting the living conditions of Thailand's rural and working class citizens.Global Asia, People's Agenda: The Way Forward for Thailand, Volume 2, Number 2, Fall 2007 He administered two economic stimulus packages: a US$40 billion, three-year infrastructure improvement plan, and a more than US$3 billion program of cash subsidies and handouts.Forbes, Thai Prime Minister Extolls Economic Turnaround, 24 September 2010 By 2010, the stock market and the value of the baht had rebounded to their highest levels since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Human Rights Watch called Vejjajiva "the most prolific censor in recent Thai history" and Freedom House downgraded Thailand's rating of media freedom to "not free".Human Rights Watch, Thailand: Authorities Silence 'Red Shirt' Community Radios, 27 April 2011 Abhisit also advocated for stronger anti-corruption measures, although several members of his Cabinet resigned due to corruption scandals and parts of his economic stimulus packages were criticised for instances of alleged corruption.
Abhisit's government faced major protests in April 2009 and April–May 2010. The military's crackdowns on protesters left at least 91 dead. Abhisit launched a reconciliation plan to investigate the crackdown, but the work of the investigation commission was hampered by military and government agencies. The Thai Army clashed with Cambodian troops numerous times from 2009 to 2010 in the bloodiest fighting in over two decades. The South Thailand insurgency escalated during Abhisit's government, and reports of torture and human rights violations increased.
Having resigned the party leadership after the defeat the Democrats suffered in the parliamentary elections of 2011, Abhisit was re-elected as leader at a party assembly.
In 2018, the Democrats held a contest for party leader in preparation for the upcoming election. Abhisit was re-elected party leader, beating former PDRC leader, Warong Dechgitvigrom, by approximately 10,000 votes. However, after a poor showing in the 2019 election, Abhisit resigned as party leader.
Early life and family
Mark Abhisit Vejjajiva was born to ethnic Chinese parents in Princess Mary Maternity Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom. He attended as a child. He studied in England from the age of eleven, where he attended prep school at Scaitcliffe and then Eton College. Abhisit earned a first-class honours bachelor's degree in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), and a master's degree in economics from St John's College, Oxford. While studying in England, he went to Thailand several times, including a gap year trip in 1983 with classmate and future UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the hill resort city of Chiang Mai and the tourist island of Phuket.
After moving to Thailand, he received a bachelor's degree in law from Thailand's Ramkhamhaeng University, and taught at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy and Thammasat University Faculty of Economics. He is fluent in both his mother tongue and English also having both dual Thai and British citizenship. His dual citizenship became a topic for the Thai parliamentary debates in early-2011. He is of Chinese descent and a seventh generation overseas Hakka with ancestry in China's Guangdong province, but his family's domicile of origin is in Chanthaburi province which is located in the country's eastern side near to the border with Cambodia, since his father is a sixth-generation local-born Chinese.
Abhisit is married to Pimpen Sakuntabhai, his classmate at the Chulalongkorn University Demonstration elementary school, who is a former dentist and is now a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics at Chulalongkorn University. They have two children: Prang Vejjajiva (daughter) and Pannasit Vejjajiva (son). Pannasit has had autism since birth. After his majority, the Central Juvenile and Family Court adjudged him quasi-incompetent and placed him under the guardianship of Abhisit, his father, as from 3 September 2012.
Abhisit also has two sisters: child psychiatrist Alisa Wacharasindhu and author Ngarmpun Vejjajiva. One of Abhisit's first cousins, Suranand Vejjajiva was a cabinet minister under Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party and served as the Prime Minister's Secretary General under Yingluck Shinawatra. Suranand's father, Nissai Vejjajiva served as the ambassador to various countries between the 1960s to 1980s and is the older brother of Abhisit's father, Athasit.Practical report–Vejjajiva family, 22 May 2012
Background Abhisit's ethnic Chinese ancestors were surnamed Yuan (袁) and arrived in Thailand from China via Vietnam, and were settled in the province of Chanthaburi after arriving in the kingdom. The family name Vejjajiva was granted by King Rama VI to Abhisit's grandfather Dr. Long (หลง), together with Long's father Jinsang (จิ๊นแสง), grandfather Peng (เป๋ง) and great-grandfather Go (ก่อ), while Dr. Long was serving as an Army Medical Department sub-lieutenant. ()
Abhisit has a nephew, Parit Wacharasindhu, who is the incumbent spokesperson of the People's Party, a progressive party in Thailand.
The Vejjajiva family came to prominence when Dr. Long, then styled Phra Bamrad Naradura, rose to public health minister and founded the Bamrad Naradura Hospital in Nonthaburi. The family name means "medical profession".
Abhisit's father, Athasit (อรรถสิทธิ์) Vejjajiva, is a former president of Mahidol University and a member of the Royal Institute of Thailand.Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand, Vol. 29 No. 3, April–June 2004 After the National Peace Keeping Council seized power in a military coup in 1991, the military junta appointed Abhisit's father Deputy Minister of Public Health.Political economy of tobacco control in Thailand ; Assembly XLVII
Early political career
Entry into politics Abhisit began his political career in the 1992 general elections that followed the coup, becoming a Bangkok MP for the Democrat Party. He was re-elected to the same seat in the 1995 and 1996 general elections. In the elections of 2001 and 2005, he returned to parliament as a Party List MP for the Democrat Party. He has served as Democrat Party spokesman, Government spokesman, Prime Minister's Deputy-Secretary General for Political Affairs, Chairman of the House Education Affairs Committee, and Minister to the Prime Minister's Office.
Education Reform During his administration as Minister to the Prime Minister's Office, he was responsible for the national education act of 1999.
Democrat Party leader Abhisit was first nominated for the position of Democrat Party leader in 2003, following the resignation of then-party leader and former-Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. However, he lost the bid in a close election with seasoned politician Banyat Bantadtan. Two years later, Banyat led the Democrat Party to an overwhelming defeat in the 2005 general elections. Banyat resigned following the elections and Abhisit was named the new party leader.
2006 elections
In February 2006, then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra dissolved the House of Representatives and called for new elections in April. In response, Abhisit announced that the Democrats and other opposition parties would boycott the elections. They claimed the elections lacked legitimacy, and were an attempt by Thaksin to divert public attention from his tax free sales of the Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings.
Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party won an overwhelming majority in the virtually uncontested April 2006 election. However, the elections also left 38 seats vacant in the House of Representatives, because some Thai Rak Thai candidates were unable to garner the constitutionally required minimum of 20% of the vote to hold office. In the ensuing political crisis, Thaksin announced he would step down as Prime Minister, and the Constitutional Court ultimately invalidated the election results.
The Thai Rak Thai party charged the Democrats with bribing other small political parties into boycotting the April 2006 elections. An 11-member fact-finding panel headed by Deputy Attorney-General Chaikasem Nitisiri voted unanimously in June 2006 to recommend dissolving the Democrat Party, as well as Thai Rak Thai and three other parties, based on evidence that the Democrats bribed other opposition parties into boycotting the elections. In February 2007, candidates from the Progressive Democratic Party testified before the Constitution Tribunal that they were duped into registering for candidacy in the April elections. Three witnesses testified that Democrat leaders Thaworn Senniam, Wirat Kalayasiri, and Jua Ratchasi encouraged protesters to disrupt the registration of candidates during the by-elections after the April 2006 election. Prosecutors contended that the party tried to disqualify the election results and force continuous rounds of by-elections. The defence claimed that the witnesses were hired by the Thai Rak Thai party to discredit the Democrats. Ultimately, the Constitutional Court of Thailand acquitted Abhisit and the Democrats of bribery, and instead banned Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party for the same charges.The Left/Right Debate Thai Tribunal: Democrat Party Cleared Of Electoral Violations (Nasdaq) , 30 May 2007
2006 military coup On 19 September 2006, only weeks before the scheduled elections, the military seized power in the 2006 Thailand coup. Abhisit voiced his disapproval of the coup just hours before all political activities were banned:
Abhisit and the Democrats supported the military junta's 2007 draft constitution on the grounds that rejecting it would give more power to the junta. Abhisit said the Democrat Party considered the new constitution similar to the 1997 constitution, but with improvements as well as faults. "If we wanted to please the Council for National Security we would reject the draft so it could pick a charter of its own choosing. If we reject the draft, it will be like handing out power to the Council. We have come up with this stand because we care about national interest and want democracy to be restored soon", he said. Abhisit said he would seek to amend the Constitution if he was named prime minister.
2007 elections