More than 80 per cent of the respondents said they did not believe Thaksin’s assertion that it was his children as major shareholders who had decided to sell their shares so their father would no longer have to face conflict-of-interest allegations as prime minister. Only 16 per cent of respondents said they believed the premier.

Around 91 per cent of people polled said they disagreed with allowing foreigners to hold up to 49 per cent of shares in a telecommunications business in Thailand. Only 9 per cent said they had no objection to it.

Almost two-thirds of respondents (63 per cent) said a recent amendment to the telecommunications law, which almost doubles the proportion of shares foreigners can own in a business (from a maximum of 25 per cent to 49 per cent), was passed specifically to benefit Shin Corp. Some 22 per cent said they were not sure if the amendment had been passed in order to benefit the Shinawatra family.

A third of the respondents said they thought the most controversial issue was the special amendment to the telecommunications law.

Around the same number of people said they were most interested in why members of the Shinawatra family had been granted a special tax exemption on proceeds from the sale of the flagship family business. Two thirds of the respondents said they wanted to see members of the family pay taxes after the sale of Shin Corp.

Half of the respondents said they had deep reservations about the prime minister as an honest broker, while some 11 per cent said they trusted Thaksin’s integrity and decisiveness.

About the same number of people polled said they were ambivalent towards him.