Government > Leaders Stats: compare key data on Cambodia & Thailand

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STAT	Cambodia	Thailand	HISTORY
Head of state	King Norodom Sihamoni	King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Head of state > Profile	<p>The son of former king Norodom Sihanouk, King Sihamoni was sworn in as monarch on 29 October 2004. The former king abdicated because of poor health.</p> <p>Born in 1953, he studied in Czechoslovakia. He left Cambodia for France after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. He is a trained classical ballet dancer.</p> <p>Cambodia&#039;s kings once enjoyed a semi-divine status; today, the monarch&#039;s role is mainly ceremonial.</p>	<p>Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. </p> <p>Its king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, assumed the throne in June 1946 and is the world&#039;s longest-reigning monarch. </p> <p>The royal family is revered by many Thais.</p> <p>Thailand has strict lese-majeste laws, and those deemed to have offended the monarchy - which is still a powerful force in the country - are often dealt with severely.</p>
Head of state > Summary	The king&#039;s role is largely ceremonial	King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit
Prime minister	Hun Sen	Yingluck Shinawatra
Prime minister > Profile	<p>Hun Sen, one of the world&#039;s longest-serving prime ministers, has been in power in various coalitions since 1985.</p> <p>He was reappointed by parliament in September 2013 for a further five-year term. The move followed mass demonstrations and came amid a boycott of parliament by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which alleged fraud in the July elections.</p> <p>The prime minister&#039;s Cambodian People&#039;s Party won 68 seats in the poll, to the CNRP&#039;s 55. The CNRP said it was cheated out of 2.3 million votes.</p> <p>Hun Sen is no stranger to controversy. He seized power from his then co-prime minister, Prince Ranariddh, in 1997. More recently, some Western countries have said his rule has become increasingly authoritarian.</p> <p>Born in 1952, Hun Sen joined the Communist Party in the late 1960s and, for a time, was a member of the Khmer Rouge. He has denied accusations that he was once a top official within the movement, saying he was only an ordinary soldier.</p> <p>During the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s he joined anti-Khmer Rouge forces based in Vietnam.</p> <p>Hun Sen has said he will rule Cambodia into his seventies. </p>	<p>Yingluck Shinawatra, the youngest sister of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, led the opposition Pheu Thai party to a landslide victory in July 2011 and became Thailand&#039;s first woman prime minister.</p><p>In the country&#039;s first general election since 2007, Pheu Thai won 265 seats out of a possible 500 - enough to form a single-party government. </p> <p>However, in what was seen as a shrewd political move, the party announced it would form a coalition with four smaller parties, thus broadening its support in parliament for promised reforms. </p> <p>Ms Yingluck, aged 44 at the time of her election and a successful businesswoman, promised to bring stability and reconciliation to what had for some years been a deeply polarised country. However, critics were quick to point out her inexperience, given that she had never before run for office nor held a government post. </p> <p>The influence of her brother, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and convicted of graft two years later, loomed large throughout the election and beyond. Despite living in self-imposed exile, Thaksin Shinawatra is still seen by many as pulling the strings of government behind the scenes.</p> <p>The opposition claimed that Ms Yingluck&#039;s primary role was to marshal the Thaksin faithful - the mainly poor rural voters who kept him in power - and serve as his proxy as he governed from abroad. </p> <p>Though Thailand enjoyed relative stability for the first two years of Ms Yingluck&#039;s premiership, an attempt to pass a political amnesty bill in the autumn of 2013 - which would have allowed Mr Thaksin to return from exile without serving his jail term - reignited simmering political tensions.</p> <p>The opposition brought its supporters out onto the streets in their tens of thousands, and mass protests continued for months.</p> <p>In December, Ms Yingluck dissolved the lower house of parliament and called early elections for February 2014 in a bid to defuse the crisis. This does not appear to have satisfied the opposition, which continues to call for her to step down and has announced that it will boycott the elections.</p> <p>Analysts say that despite the protests, Ms Yingluck still enjoys a strong rural support base, which could be enough to return her to power in the next elections.</p> <p>Yingluck Shinawatra has degrees in politics and before running for election she had a corporate career in telecommunications and property. She is married and has one son. </p>
Prime minister > Summary	Cambodia&#039;s veteran premier Hun Sen	Thailand enjoyed a period of relative stability for the first two years of Ms Yingluck&#039;s premiership

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