Thailand's caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra abruptly canceled a planned evening press conference on Sunday and will hold an emergent meeting on Monday noon, apparently rattled by a staggeringly high number of " abstain" votes in an election he portrayed as a virtual national referendum on his beleaguered leadership.

Early counts showed the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party losing its grip on Bangkok, the hotbed of anti-government protests for more than three months. Abstain votes in many constituencies in the capital outnumbered votes for Thai Rak Thai candidates, who ran in a virtual one-horse race because the opposition bloc had boycotted the election.

But the question of legitimacy will not be limited to Bangkok. The Democrat-dominated South also gave Thai Rak Thai a big snub. Many "winning" Thai Rak Thai candidates in the South stand to be disqualified because the law stipulates that candidates who have no competition must win at least 20 percent of support from eligible voters in their constituencies. This raises the highly contentious issue of whether an "incomplete" House of Representatives can convene and elect the next prime minister.

Thai Rak Thai sources said party leaders were rocked by informal exit poll results showing that the number of abstain votes, called "no votes" by the anti-Thaksin movement, would be much higher than expected. "Everyone is bewildered," said a party insider. "Many targets have not been reached. Now the biggest worry is Bangkok."

At press time, many of Thai Rak Thai's Bangkok candidates were trailing the "no vote" numbers in their constituencies. It appears that anti-Thaksin sentiment is particularly strong in inner Bangkok, but he remains fairly popular in the suburbs. But even though many Thai Rak Thai candidates will beat the "no votes", the party is afraid that the poll results will give new momentum to the campaign by the People's Alliance for Democracy to oust its leader.

Thaksin had vowed not to return to office if the "no votes" plus votes for smaller parties beat pro-Thai Rak Thai votes nationwide. According to the sources, the exit polls conducted by the party showed that Thai Rak Thai's 19 million votes in the last election could plunge to 15 million this time.

Source: Xinhua