All eyes on Thaksin as Thailand goes ahead with polls

Thailand breathed a sigh of relief Friday after revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed the election date on October 15, ending months of speculation over when the polls would take place.

"The new elections will help clear up the uncertainty. Everyone needs to participate because it's very important to get Thai politics back to normal," said Dana Dillon, a senior analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

The October polls are expected to be a showdown between Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party and the main opposition Democrat Party, which boycotted snap elections on April 2.

"One of the ways to get out of this crisis is to have a fair and free election that is acceptable to all parties," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political science professor at Chulalongkorn University.

"Before, we were not even sure the elections would take place. Now at least one uncertainty is gone and we are one step closer to the solution," he said.

Thaksin had called snap polls three years early in a bid to halt street protests demanding his ouster over alleged corruption after his family sold 1.9 billion dollars in telecom stock without paying taxes.

His party won the vote, but the victory was undermined by the opposition boycott. Just two days after the April polls, a tearful Thaksin announced he would step aside and handed the reins of government to his deputy.

But the 56-year-old billionaire politician formally returned to office in May after the Constitutional Court invalidated the last election, clearing the way for new polls that the king approved last week.

Thaksin has yet to say whether he will run in the upcoming elections and seek the premiership when parliament convenes after the polls.

If he assumes office, Panitan warned the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), which led anti-Thaksin protests earlier this year, could return to the streets.

"This is a major issue. PAD argues that Thaksin has resigned from the post and promised he would not return to office. Therefore, (if Thaksin accepted the premiership), he would be held accountable for that," he said.

"They will begin public campaigns against the prime minister to force him to stay away from politics," Panitan said.

On Saturday, the English-language daily Bangkok Post said Thaksin would not accept the premiership after the October elections and supported Thai Rak Thai party deputy leader Pongthep Thepkanchana as his successor.

But the Heritage Foundation's Dillon said Thaksin could come back as a new premier.