Ousted Thai PM's sister wins election

BANGKOK -- The sister of Thailand's fugitive former prime minister led his loyalists to a landslide election victory Sunday, a stunning rout of the military-backed government that last year crushed protests by his supporters with a bloody crackdown that left the capital in flames.

The results pave the way for Thaksin Shinawatra's youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, considered his proxy, to become the nation's first female prime minister -- if the coup-prone Thai army accepts the results.

The Southeast Asian kingdom has been wracked by upheaval since 2006, when Thaksin was toppled in a military coup amid accusations of corruption and a rising popularity some saw as a threat to the nation's much-revered monarchy.

The coup touched off a schism between the country's haves and long-silent have-nots -- pitting the marginalized rural poor who hailed Thaksin's populism against an elite establishment bent on defending the status quo that sees him as a corrupt autocrat. Last year's violent demonstrations by "Red Shirt" protesters -- most of them Thaksin backers -- and the subsequent crackdown marked the boiling over of those divisions.

The Pheu Thai party was led to an overwhelming victory by Yingluck, 44, a U.S.-educated businesswoman hand-picked by her billionaire brother.

From exile 3,000 miles away in Dubai, Thaksin, 61, hailed the outcome. "People are tired of a standstill," he said in an interview broadcast on Thai television. "They want to see change in a peaceful manner."

At her party headquarters, Yingluck told a crowd of supporters: "I don't want to say that Pheu Thai wins today. It's a victory of the people."

With 98 percent of the vote counted, preliminary results showed the Pheu Thai party far ahead with 264 of 500 parliament seats. The Democrat party of army-backed incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva had 160 seats.

Abhisit and his allies have accused Yingluck of plotting Thaksin's return to Thailand through a proposed amnesty for all political crimes committed since 2006. Thaksin denied that claim.