By Xinhua
Bangkok : Thailand Elections Commission said here Sunday that 80 percent of votes counted show the People Power Party (PPP) supporting deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has won Thailand’s post-coup election but fell short of an absolute majority in parliament.
Thai farmers, the majority of Thailand’s 64 million population, gave most of their support to PPP because of Shinawatra’s efforts to improve the rural economy during his five-year’s term in office, observers commented.
The Democrat Party is in the second place in the early results, with 165 constituency MP seats and 34 party-list MP seats expected.
PPP leader Samak Sundaravej said Sunday night that his party has already become the biggest party in Parliament according to the early voting result of Sunday’s general election, and he will be the new prime minister.
At a press conference at the party headquarters, Samak said the initial vote counting result so far showed that the PPP has won 230 of the total 480 parliament seats and the final result is unlikely to be far from it.
“PPP is the biggest party in parliament. We are ready to invite other parties that we could cooperate to form a new government,” he said.