BANGKOK, April 3: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory on Monday in snap national elections but the ballot and his offer to set up a panel of eminent people to decide his future failed to resolve a political crisis.

Thaksin, accused of corruption and abuse of power by street protesters, said he would step down if the panel of former prime ministers, ex-judges and former university heads recommended it but the main opposition Democrat Party rejected the offer.

Leading opposition parties boycotted the elections, and the Election Commission said 38 of 400 parliamentary constituencies had failed to produce a winner, leaving empty seats and making it impossible for Thaksin to form a new government.

“We no longer believe in the prime minister,” said Ong-Ard Klampaiboon, spokesman for thee Democratic Party, which has led growing street protests over the tax-free, $1.9 billion sale of a telecommunications empire founded by Thaksin.

“Therefore we are not interested in his offer.”

Media mogul Sonthi Limthongkul, who launched the anti-Thaksin campaign last September, said the offer was another attempt by Thaksin to maintain his grip on power and that a major demonstration scheduled for Friday would go ahead.

“I want reconciliation for the country. I will do anything. I have retreated so many steps that my back is against the wall,” Thaksin, who called the elections three years early because of the street protests, said on television.

The political crisis has taken its toll on the economy, paralysing business decision-making and sapping the stock market, Southeast Asia’s worst performer of the year.

Thaksin said his Thai Rak Thai party (TRT) had won more than half the ballot in Sunday’s polls — a tally that released him from a promise to resign if it secured less than half the vote.

But TRT’s number of votes dropped from 19 million at the last elections in February 2005 to 16 million. Ten million voters abstained — effectively a vote against him — or chose minor parties with no chance.

The elections, which turned into a referendum on his leadership, seemed set to guarantee constitutional chaos in the absence of the reconciliation with opposition parties and street protesters that he sought.

Thaksin did not repeat his recent calls for law and order, seen by some as a threat to crack down on his opponents.

“Let law enforcers do their work, bearing in mind the principles of peace and reconciliation. I don’t want to see any violent means,” he said.

Nationwide tallies trickled out at a snail’s pace throughout the day, but results for Bangkok delivered an early blow to the Thaksin, showing TRT had lost to the abstention vote by 50.1 per cent to 45.9.

A year ago, it won 32 constituencies in the capital.

Some analysts had hoped a post-election break before street protests are due to resume on Friday could provide a cooling off period for talks between Thaksin and his opponents, an ad hoc coalition called the People’s Alliance for Democracy.

But the dismissal of Thaksin’s offer appeared to kill that hope and some people in Bangkok said they expected bigger protests.

“I think there will be more protests. More people will come out to join the protests and they could become more emotional,” said businessman Ponganan Limprajikul, 32.—Reuters