Thais vote today as Thaksin eyes win

"Where in the world is a single-party government called a dictatorship? What's wrong with it when people have faith in me?" Thaksin rhetorically asked the thousands of people gathered at the Thai Rak Thai rally in the evening.

He was referring to widely held concerns that a one-party government by Thai Rak Thai might imperil Thailand's democracy by undercutting legislative checks and balances.

Flanked by his wife and children as well as party bigwigs and Bangkok candidates, Thaksin exhorted the more than 70,000 people massed in Sanam Luang to vote for Thai Rak Thai both in the constituency and party-list systems if they wanted to see an end to poverty in Thailand.

Standing his ground, he insisted that what Thailand had always lacked was the kind of decisive political force that the Thai Rak Thai offered and that was why Democrat candidates were lambasting the party.

"Politics has to be based on firm foundations, which can be provided only by people's support," he stressed.

Thaksin urged members of other political parties to abandon politics as a profession and leave it to the Thai Rak Thai to bring happiness to people in Thailand. In the next breath, he urged his listeners to jettison the Democrats in order to teach its members an electoral lesson. "The country doesn't need the service of the Democrats right now, let them be introspective first," he said.

"Democracy does not mean Democrat," Thaksin added, explaining that he himself was a paragon of a true democrat and would soon prove it by staging a primary election within Thai Rak Thai to allow members to nominate their own candidates in future elections.