BANGKOK - Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hugged his two daughters and sobbed yesterday after announcing he would step down in the wake of controversial weekend elections.

Thaksin announced he would not accept the post of prime minister when parliament reconvenes.

Immediately after the 10-minute nationally televised speech, Thaksin -- who is battling allegations of corruption and abuse of power -- hugged his daughters and wept on their shoulders while his wife put her arms around him.

Thaksin made the announcement just hours after meeting the nation's revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, amid threats of new mass protests in Bangkok demanding that he quit.

Thaksin said he made his decision out of respect for the monarch.

He called Sunday's elections three years early after two months of street protests against his rule. But the main opposition parties boycotted the polls, undermining their credibility.

Simmering public anger against Thaksin erupted in late January after his family sold its holding in telecoms giant Shin Corp. for 1.9 billion dollars in a tax-free deal.

Thaksin said he will step down when parliament convenes after controversial weekend elections which the opposition boycotted.

"I will not accept the post of prime minister when the parliament convenes," he said in a 10-minute statement.

"My reason for not accepting the post of prime minister is because this year in an auspicious year for the king, whose 60th anniversary on the throne is just 60 days away," Thaksin said in a nationally televised press conference.

"I want all Thais to reunite," he said.

"I beg all Thais to sacrifice for the king. I apologise to my 16 million supporters that I cannot take the post of prime minister, but I will still carry on as a caretaker prime minister until my successor is chosen," he said.

"I will remain a member of parliament and the Thai Rak Thai party leader."

Earlier yesterday the anti-government movement had vowed to launch a fresh wave of mass protests unless the premier resigned.

They made the threat even before final results from weekend elections had been announced, indicating that Thaksin's bid to end weeks of political instability by calling the early polls had failed.

The three parties that boycotted Sunday's election said that new elections should be organized without Thaksin and again called on him to quit.

"It's too late for national reconciliation," Democrat party head Abhisit Vejjajiva said after a meeting between the parties. "We would join new elections, but Mr. Thaksin has to resign first."

Thaksin's party had taken 54 percent of the vote in the latest returns, with more than two thirds of constituencies counted, election officials said, warning that a complete count might not be released until the end of the week.

Thaksin says his party won with 57 percent of the vote despite a strong protest vote, especially in Bangkok and the South.

But the more than 16 million votes he claimed fell a long way short of the 19 million people who gave him a landslide election win just one year earlier.

Even if the final count confirms Thaksin's victory, election officials said by-elections will be held on April 23 in 38 constituencies where the only candidate in the race failed to win the required 20 percent of the vote.

Another by-election will be held in a district where all the candidates were disqualified over irregularities in the nomination process.

Parliament cannot convene to confirm a new prime minister until all 500 seats are filled, promising weeks of further uncertainty.

The protracted crisis has cast a cloud over one of the region's most dynamic economies. The government has already adjusted economic growth forecasts and the stock market has taken a hit.*AFP

back to top