December 24, 2007	Monday	Zilhaj 13, 1428

BANGKOK, Dec 23: Allies of deposed Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory in Sunday’s elections, setting the stage for the billionaire’s political comeback more than a year after his ouster in a coup.

The pro-Thaksin People Power Party (PPP) fell short of an absolute majority in parliament, according to the election authority, forcing its leader Samak Sundaravej to seek partners for a coalition government.

But the party’s strong showing dealt a major blow to the royalist generals who toppled the government in September 2006, and raised the prospect that Thaksin could soon return from self-imposed exile if PPP succeeds in its coalition building.

“I will be the next prime minister for sure,” Samak confidently told reporters, saying that Thaksin had called from Hong Kong to congratulate him on the result.

The PPP looked set to win 228 of the 480 seats up for grabs, according to unofficial results from the Election Commission. Final, official results will not be released until later Monday at the earliest.

PPP’s closest rival, the Democrat Party, was set to win 166 seats, with five smaller parties dividing up the rest.

The military has made little secret that it would prefer to see a Democrat-led coalition, and the party’s leader Abhisit Vejjajiva refused to bow out.

“The PPP has failed to win an overall majority it wanted,” he told a press conference.

“If PPP succeeds in forming a coalition, the Democrat Party is ready to become the opposition. If the PPP fails, then the Democrat Party is ready to form its own coalition,” he said.

PPP came out ahead in the polls even though one third of the country, including Thaksin’s rural strongholds, is still under martial law.

“The results underlined that people still support Thaksin and want him to come back,” said Ukrist Pathmanand, a professor of political science at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

A group of Asian election observers said that it had concerns over the secrecy of the ballot and reports of vote buying, but generally the polls had gone well.

“The Election Commission seems to have handled things pretty well,” said Adam Cooper, spokesman for the Asian Network for Free Elections, which deployed 42 observers around the country.

The United States, meanwhile, praised the electorate for taking a “crucial step toward a return to elected government” after its “free and fair” vote.

Thaksin has not returned to Thailand since the coup, living instead in self-imposed exile in Britain, where he bought Manchester City Football Club.

The junta dissolved Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party and banned him from political office, but the man who made a fortune in telecoms has remained a dominant and divisive figure in Thai politics.

PPP campaigned on promises to bring back Thaksin’s economic policies and to allow the exiled leader to return to Thailand.

Few analysts believe the election will resolve deep divisions between anti-Thaksin urban dwellers and the rural masses, who remain loyal to the deposed leader.

PPP draws most of its support from farmers, the majority of Thailand’s 64 million population, who remember Thaksin’s efforts to boost the rural economy during his five-year rule.

The Democrat Party is popular among Bangkok’s middle-class, who last year spearheaded anti-Thaksin protests that culminated in the coup.

The military has already taken steps to ensure its continued influence over the new government.

The generals tossed out Thailand’s 1997 constitution, widely hailed as the most democratic the kingdom had ever known, and passed an army-backed charter in a referendum in August.—AFP