In this post-truth, Trumpian world, seemingly nothing can stop a political career. A few years in a Sydney jail back in the 1990s certainly failed to dent Thammanat Prompao’s rise to a position of power and influence in Thailand.

Now the one-time drug convict is a candidate to be prime minister.

Thammanat Prompao is a political electromagnet: he attracts controversy but nothing seems to stick.Credit: Facebook

When he first got into the cabinet in 2019, Thammanat stood up and tried to put rumours of an ancient Sydney arrest to bed by saying he was simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He dared reporters to check the court records.

We did. Thammanat, then known under the first of four identities he has cycled through, had come into contact with crooks while in the Thai army and joined their........

© The Sydney Morning Herald