BANGKOK, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Election Commission (EC)secretary-general Ekkachai Warunprapha said on Wednesday that unofficial results of the Sunday election showed that the Thai RakThai Party had earned at least 16.2 million popular votes.

    Ekkachai said the vote tallying had been done in 398 constituencies and the counting in two constituencies of Mae Hong Son had yet to be finished.

    From the unofficial results, it became certain that the Thai Rak Thai would be the only party to have party-list MPs, Ekkachai said.

    But since the Thai Rak Thai list has only 99 candidates, the number of MPs would be definitely one short of 500 if the EC manages to fill all 400 constituency-based House seats in the second round of elections.

    The popular vote of Thai Rak Thai constituted of 55.8 percent of all popular votes cast.

    He said the no votes in party-list election stood at 9.1 million or 31 percent while invalid ballots constituted of 3.98 percent or 1.78 million ballots.

    Thaksin Shinawatra, the Thai Rak Thai Party's leader and the caretaker Prime Minister, will accompany his daughter back to London on Saturday to study for a master degree.

    A Thai Rak Thai source said Thaksin would stay in London until after the Songkran holidays (Thai Traditional New Year) before returning to Thailand.

    Thaksin, who announced on Tuesday that he will not accept the Prime Minister post in the new Cabinet, assigned his deputy, Chitchai Wannasathit, to work on his behalf during his absence. Enditem