"As party leader, I humbly accept the ruling and I want to urge the Council of National Security and government to hold general elections as soon as possible," said Thaksin who is now living in London after being ousted by a coup d'etat last year.

The letter was read by Thaksin's spokesman, Noppadon Pattama, yesterday.

The Constitutional Tribunal on Wednesday ordered TRT to be dissolved and banned the entire 111 executives of the party, including Thaksin, for five years.

Thaksin said in the letter that he had to apologise to members, party executives and supporters that the party has come to this end. He believed that these political decisions are historic and will be studied and scrutinised in many generations to come.

 "Although I announced that I would wash my hands of politics, I would like to urge members to work and implement political activities for the sake of the country and the people," Thaksin said in the letter.

Noppadol said he himself wished to say sorry for all TRT members and congratulate all Democrat Party members on their party escaping the dissolution.

"We speculated at the beginning that our party would face this. To disband the TRT was the strong wish of some groups of people," he said.

Noppadol also said the trial would be remembered as historic.

The handling of the trial will be scrutinised for long time, he added, saying people will wonder if the judges used the same standards, and should the TRT have to take responsibility for wrongdoings of certain executives or not, said Noppadol.

He compared the disbanding to capital punishment, and wondered if the punishment justified the wrongdoings, and particularly whether 14 million members of the party had to be responsible for the wrongdoings of individuals.

The Nation