Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra abruptly announced yesterday he will step down from office, bowing to a mounting opposition campaign seeking his ouster over allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
His announcement came just hours after Thaksin met with King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the monarch's seaside palace in Hua Hin.
"I will not accept the post of prime minister when the parliament convenes," Thaksin said in a 10-minute statement during a nationally televised press conference.
He said he made his decision out of respect for the monarch.
"My reason for not accepting the post of prime minister is because this year in an auspicious year for the king, whose 60th anniversary on the throne is just 60 days away," Thaksin said. "I want all Thais to reunite."
"I beg all Thais to sacrifice for the king. I apologize to my 16 million supporters that I cannot take the post of prime minister, but I will still carry on as a caretaker prime minister until my successor is chosen," he said.
"I will remain a member of parliament and the Thai Rak Thai party leader," he said.
Thaksin said that his replacement would be elected once parliament resumes within the next 30 days.
Immediately after the speech, Thaksin -- who is battling allegations of corruption and abuse of power -- hugged his daughters and wept on their shoulders while his wife put her arms around him.
His announcement came as opposition forces were gearing to resume their anti-government protests and early results from Sunday's elections showed his popularity had plummeted.
Thaksin's party won 57 percent of Sunday's parliamentary poll, according to preliminary results, but scores of voters abstained, including a majority in Bangkok.
Thaksin's critics -- who for two months have been staging rallies drawing as many as 100,000 people -- rejected his idea of a reconciliation committee as insincere and called for new protests this week.
The main opposition parties boycotted Sunday's poll, leaving Thaksin's party uncontested in 278 of 400 constituencies for the lower house of parliament.
The boycott left 38 constituencies undecided, because the sole candidate in each race failed to win a required 20 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial results.
Thaksin's announcement last night was particularly surprising, given that he said on TV on Monday that he saw no reason to resign since results showed that his party had won 16 million votes.
A key leader of the protests to oust Thaksin declared victory just moments after the prime minister finished his speech.
"This is our victory. If we had not helped each other [in the protests], today would not have happened," Chamlong Srimuang said.
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