Bangkok, April 24:

Weekend by-elections failed to fill all the seats in Thailand’s parliament, officials said today, raising new questions about how to end the crisis that forced the prime minister to step aside.

Outgoing prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s party won 17 seats in yesterday’s voting, while tiny fringe parties took nine, the Election Commission announced.

But 14 seats remain empty, mostly in districts where Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party failed to meet a 20 per cent minimum vote requirement in unchallenged races.

That poses a new political headache for TRT, because Thai law requires all 500 seats to be filled before parliament can convene.

Anti-Thaksin protesters who drove the prime minister from office earlier this month have already vowed to act if parliament opens with seats unfilled.

The Election Commission was meeting today to decide whether new by-elections for the 14 empty seats could be held this week, spokesman Ekachai Warunprapa said.

“If another by-election is held, probably on Saturday, it is likely that we can fill the empty seats,” Ekachai said. Another option would be for parliament to convene with the 14 seats

still empty, and for the lawmakers to vote on whether to organise new by-elections, he added.

Thaksin’s TRT party was also meeting today to consider asking the Constitutional Court to change that requirement.

Political analyst Sukhum Chalueysab said that TRT could argue to the court that opening parliament and preventing a legislative deadlock was in the best interests of the nation.

“Now the chances are good that the parliament will convene on May 1 with some empty seats,” he told AFP. But that will do little resolve the crisis of confidence created after the opposition boycotted April 2 snap polls, he said.

The main opposition parties have refused to contest a single seat for parliament.

A handful of fringe parties have collectively won only 10 of the chamber’s 500 seats.

“Even if parliament can convene, the crisis is unlikely to end because there is doubt about how the parliamentary process can function properly without opposition,” Sukhum said.

Senate elections held April 19 did little to improve the situation.