Thai PM leads poll
2005-02-06 12:47
Bangkok - Exit polls showed Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ruling party heading for a massive victory in Sunday's general election.
A Suan Dusit-TV Channel 9 poll showed Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party seizing 399 out of 500 parliamentary seats, while a poll by The Nation newspaper gave the Thai leader 340 seats.
The main rival Democrat party was expected to win 80 seats, according to the television poll, while The Nation gave the opposition party 110 seats.
Unofficial results were not expected until late Sunday and the spokesman for Thaksin's party, Surananda Vejjajiva, said he would make no comments until the count was in.
Thaksin was widely expected to win an unprecedented second term with an even bigger mandate, boosted by strong support from the rural poor and his adroit handling of the tsunami disaster.
Opponents of the strong-willed and hugely popular prime minister accuse him of seeking dictatorship through the ballot box, and had hoped to limit his ruling party's expected landslide by netting at least enough seats to launch motions of no-confidence.
- AP