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Thai prime minister to resign

From CNN Bangkok Correspondent Ram Ramgopal

• Thai PM's rise and fall

• Blast shakes Thai political nerves

• Opposition to boycott voting

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BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- A day after claiming victory in a national election, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced he will resign amid mass protests and a political crisis that has thrown the future of the government into question.

Thaksin addressed the country on national television after meeting with the Southeast Asian country's king.

The prime minister had called the election three years early, as demonstrators filled streets demanding his ouster.

Thaksin said he would step aside because of his party's poor showing in Sunday's election, keeping a pre-election promise to leave his post if his party received less than 50 percent of the vote.

"I am sorry that I will not accept the premier post," Thaksin said during a brief televised speech, according to the Associated Press. "We have no time to quarrel ... I want to see Thai people unite and forget what has happened."

His Thai Rak Thai party was the only major one participating in the vote, as three opposition parties launched a boycott, hoping to make it impossible to fill all 500 parliamentary seats.

All the seats must be filled for a new government to be formed.

Opponents of the billionaire leader have accused him of abusing the country's system of checks and balances and bending government policy to benefit his family's business.

In his speech, the 56-year-old Thaksin said he had tried his best for the country.

"As for many things that I have been accused of, this prime minister has never thought of doing anything wrong or evil to the country," he said, according to AP.

"I think I have done my best. If there is an opportunity in the future to explain my actions, people may have a clearer understanding."

Anti-government protests grew when his family announced it had sold its controlling stake in telecom company Shin Corp. to Singapore's state-owned Temasek Holdings for a tax-free $1.9 billion.

During the elections Sunday, bombs exploded at three polling stations in Thailand's troubled southern region, wounding two policemen and four soldiers in Narathiwat, one of three Muslim-majority provinces plagued by a separatist insurgency.

More than 1,200 people have died in the insurgency in clashes and revenge killings.