Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai party have won Thailand's parliamentary elections, claiming a commanding majority in the legislature. The results are a vindication of sorts for Ms. Shinawatra's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed in 2006 by a military coup.
We say "of sorts" because Mr. Thaksin has been vindicated before: Since the coup, Thai politics have been marked by the continual reassertion of the former prime minister's popularity, only to have the military and the country's ruling elites crush that popular aspiration. The key question for Thailand today is whether that sad history will be repeated yet again.
Mr. Thaksin, a successful business executive and one of the world's richest men, was first elected prime minister in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.