Thaksin Shinawatra, they say, has a few more tricks up his sleeve. His public announcement last week that he would not to accept a third term as premier after the next parliament is formed was no more than a subterfuge to prepare himself for a major comeback. His move is seen by cynics as nothing but a tactical move to catch the protesters off-guard. He won't be premier, if that's what the noisy and increasingly powerful anti-Thaksin faction wants. But that doesn't mean he won't be in a position to call all the shots. In other words, he will be a "super-premier".

A super-premier is much more frightening. He isn't bound by the Constitution to account for his wealth. He doesn't have to answer any questions in Parliament. He isn't subject to public scrutiny. He can run the country without any accountability. As he said recently, while he was in mobile mode when the Government House was under siege by the protesters, "I don't have to work from the Government House. It's just a phone call away."

Now Thaksin can let one of his nominees, who will also be only a phone call away, assume the premiership. The super-premier could even manage the country from a golf course in the British Virgin Islands. The CEO has elevated himself into an executive chairmanship without portfolio. The Thaksin regime remains intact, in fact even thriving under this new undeclared organisation chart.

The opposition parties and the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), whose initial reaction to Thaksin's "political pause" declaration was cautiously positive, have found themselves facing a new dilemma of sorts.

Thaksin can claim to have taken another step back as a compromise. The other side is thus expected to live up to their side of the bargain. By this rationale, the PAD should call off future rallies and the former opposition parties should agree to take part in future elections. Thaksin said he had done his bit and he expected his enemies to do theirs.

The anti-Thaksin camp's euphoria soon evaporated. Thaksin has, in his retreat, built a huge trap for his opponents. With the prospect that he won't be in the premier's seat in the next government, the Democrats and the PAD are compelled to help wrap up - even legitimise - the farcical, bizarre and constitutionally questionable April 2 election.

Thaksin's enemies have the unenviable choice of assisting in somehow putting a stamp of legitimacy on the election results or face the prospect of allowing Thaksin to remain "acting prime minister" for an indefinite period.

What's worse, if this scenario is played out, Thaksin's worst critics will also have to accept the unpleasant fact that through this ludicrous political manipulation, the man who is at the centre of the storm will be in a position to pick one of his lieutenants as the new prime minister, despite the growing chorus decrying the establishment of a puppet government that is clearly a surrogate for the Thaksin regime.

Should this scenario materialise, Thaksin's current political vacation will only be a brief break before he uses the interim government, headed by his nominee premier, as a launching pad for the next election campaign that will reinstall him as the country's most powerful figure, after the supposedly non-partisan political-reform process is completed.

The anti-Thaksin force - buoyed by the estimated 10 million abstention votes plus about three million invalid ballots, juxtaposed with the 16 million votes cast for Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai - is revising its counter-strategy after having declared an initial victory.

The Democrats and the PAD are seeking the nullification of the April 2 election through the Election Commission and the Constitution Court on the grounds that the whole exercise was a farce.

If the new House can't be convened due to constitutional aberrations, a prime minister can't be named. That would open up the way for the invocation of the famous Article 7 of the Constitution, which paves the way for a royally appointed prime minister to break the stalemate.

All of a sudden it has dawned upon the anti-Thaksin elements that the battle for a new era of politics - free from Thaksinomics' populist manipulation based solely on money-driven electioneering techniques - has only just begun.

That emotional scene that Thaksin staged at Government House, with his family members and underlings hugging one another, their eyes brimming with tears, was not the closing chapter but merely signalled a tactical shift.

Get that tape and replay it. Nowhere in his speech did Thaksin say he was bidding farewell to politics.

Suthichai Yoon

The Nation