Barefooted Thai voters stand in line after wading through their flooded village at a polling centre in the southern province of Pattani yesterday. - Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters):

The party backing ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra easily won the most seats in yesterday's election, a stunning rejection of the coup which booted out the telecoms billionaire in 2006.

With 93 per cent of the vote counted, the People Power Party (PPP) was heading for 228 seats in the 480-member Parliament and said it would form a coalition government analysts do not see a smooth transition in a still deeply divided country.

Abrasive PPP leader Samak Sundaravej said Thaksin had phoned from exile to congratulate him on the result, a major problem for the generals whose campaign to consign Thaksin to political oblivion via the coup and corruption charges now lies in tatters.

"It is a victory for this country," Samak told a news conference, adding that he would "certainly be Prime Minister".

"This country lost its freedom on September 19 last year for no good reason," he said.

The big question is whether the army and the royalist establishment, whom the Thaksin camp says was the brains behind the bloodless putsch, will stand by and watch its arch-enemy make a comeback by proxy.

One senior PPP figure has suggested Thaksin be invited back on February 14 - St. Valentine's Day.

Vote fraud

Sundaravej

Although some analysts said a strong PPP showing could trigger another coup, others believe the army-appointed government is more likely to try first to stymie the PPP by disqualifying candidates for vote fraud. The bigger the PPP win, the harder that will be.

"It depends how many red cards they have to issue," said Kevin Hewison, a Thai expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "If it's 40 or 50, it may be difficult, but if it's only 10 or 20, they might be able to do it."