BANGKOK _ A 67-year-old former princess, the daughter of Thailand's beloved late king, entered the race for prime minister on Friday, upending next month's elections and stunning a country where the monarchy is deified and has traditionally floated above politics.
Even more surprising was that Ubolratana Mahidol _ an actress, pop singer philanthropist and Instagram celebrity _ was nominated by a fugitive ex-prime minister's political machine, which hard-core supporters of the royal family accuse of working to undermine the monarchy.
The former princess's decision, the subject of incredulous whispers in Bangkok for two days, instantly redrew the political map in this Southeast Asian kingdom, whose tourist-friendly image belies a turbulent record of military coups, street protests and palace intrigue.
Khaosod, a news website, called it "undoubtedly the biggest bombshell in modern Thai political history."
"I find it shocking," said Pavin Chachavalpongpun, associate professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University in Japan.
"This definitely further complicates Thai politics .... I cannot imagine what the election is going to be like."
Ubolratana, the elder sister of the current king, becomes the odds-on favorite in the March 24 balloting _ billed as a restoration of democracy after five years of military rule, but which the army was widely seen to have been choreographing to install its favored candidate as prime minister.
The incumbent, former army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, who also filed to run for prime minister on Friday, has cast himself as a defender of the monarchy. But while the army is popular in Thailand, many Thais have chafed at Prayuth's imperial style and aggregation of powers while economic growth stagnates.
In 2014, the army ousted an elected government led by the party of Thaksin Shinawatra, a telecommunications billionaire whose influential political machine has won every election Thailand has held this century.
Thaksin's populist appeal was seen by some as a threat to the longstanding pillars of the Thai body politic _ the army and the monarchy _ and his rise has plunged the kingdom into a long tug-of-war between "yellow shirt" supporters of the establishment and Thaksin's "red shirt" partisans.
The military carried out a 2006 coup to topple Thaksin, who has lived in exile to avoid criminal charges he says are politically motivated. He has run his party and several proxies from exile, but is reportedly eager to return to Thailand to enjoy his fortune.
Close watchers of the Thai royal family said King Maha Vajiralongkorn _ who assumed the throne when his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in 2016 after reigning for 70 years _ would have had to sign off on his sister's entry into politics, indicating he was uncomfortable with Prayuth staying in office.
"There's been a lot of speculation in recent months about the king not necessarily being pleased with Prayuth, and it's possible to read today's news as the king signaling his veto," said Michael Montesano, a visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
"It could be personal chemistry, it could be wanting to show he's in charge," Montesano said of the king. "He's a willful figure who has made clear that he has an expansive view of royal powers."
The former princess _ long reported to be King Bhumibol's favorite child _ was born in 1951 and left Thailand to attend MIT and graduate school at UCLA, according to a statement by the party nominating her, Thai Raksa Chart. But she fell out with her father over her marriage to an American, fellow student Peter Jensen, in 1972.
She gave up her royal title and lived an unassuming life, raising their three children in the San Diego area.
After the couple divorced, she returned to Thailand, where she was still regarded as royalty, and took on some ceremonial duties, and starting several charities. But she also pursued singing, acting and talk-show hosting with zeal, chronicling her exploits on her playful private Instagram feed and turning into one of the country's most well known social media celebrities.
She has also displayed a common touch, and won more admirers after one of her children died in the 2004 tsunami.
Last year, on a variety show she hosted, Ubolratana joked that she doesn't like when Thais greet her with the customary phrase, "Long live your highness," which feels stiff and distant, and she'd prefer it if people said, "Long may you be slender." The #longliveslender hashtag trended on Thai social media in the hours after her announcement.
In a statement on her private Instagram feed, Ubolratana thanked her supporters "for a chance to lead Thailand toward progress and prosperity."
"I have already relinquished all royal titles, and I am living as a commoner," she wrote. "Therefore, I'd like to exercise my rights and freedom as a commoner under the constitution and the law."
Ubolratana is friendly with Thaksin _ they were photographed together watching the 2018 soccer World Cup _ but rumors of their alliance caught fire Wednesday with a Facebook post by Andrew Macgregor Marshall, a Scottish journalist formerly based in Bangkok. Citing "well-placed Thai and foreign sources," he said the former princess's nomination was close to a done deal.
"It has long been rumored that Vajiralongkorn wants to broker a 'grand bargain' that ends the decade-and-a-half-long red-versus-yellow conflict between Thaksin and the royalist and military elite," Marshall wrote.
Many Thais were dumbstruck. Ardent royalists were appalled that a member of the revered family would join forces with Thaksin, who launched Thai Raksa Chart as one of several proxy parties in case the junta shut down his main Pheu Thai party.
On social media, Thais debated whether politics will sully the monarchy _ or whether the royal family's entry into politics has snuffed out even the faintest embers of democracy.
"Long live the princess," Facebook user Prasert Reanian wrote. "You've done the right thing to heal the cracks of the nation and make the country reconcile, unite and help each other again."
However, another user, Tep Veasna, wrote: "This is shameful. You dragged the royal family into politics. I oppose this _ it damanges the royal family's reputation."
With criticism of Thailand's monarchy prohibited by harsh laws, Thais were uncertain what shape the campaign would take. Could Ubolratana be questioned like any other candidate? Was running against her technically a crime?
"The whole thing is so unhealthy for Thai politics," said Pavin, the Kyoto University professor. "To get out from military rule only to jump into another system of the business elite and monarchy working together _ and where are the people? There is nothing to celebrate about this."
