Aas of 9pm Sunday's night, according to the Nation and Manager Online, the People Power Party is set win 233 seats while the Democrats should win about 160 seats. Official results may differ slightly but one can see a picture of Thai politics from the the preliminary election results.

What are the lessons we all can learn here?

First, Thailand is indeed divided politically and economically. Voters in Bangkok and the South have a very different idea about who should be their government from voters in the North and the Northeast.

The Democrats win heavily in Bangkok and the South. According to Manager Online, the Democrat Party wins 75 seats, out of 127 constituency seats it wins in total, in these two regions. The party only wins 13 seats in the North and 2 in the Northeast. It wins 37 in the Central and Eastern region.

The PPP, on the other hand, is set to win 99 seats in the Northeast and 48 in the North. That's 147 seats out of 198 constituency seats it is set to win. It wins only 11 seats in Bangkok and 2 in the South. It gets 38 in the Central and Eastern region.

Clearly, whereas most people in the poorest regions of the country - 61% in the North and 71% in the Northeast - prefer the PPP as their government, most people in the more economically developed regions - the South and Bangkok - prefer the Democrat Party. The proportionate MPs election results confirm this, with the PPP and the Democrats each winning about 35 seats. Again, the election results underline Anek Laothamatas' point made in 1995.

The second lesson, and the most important one we should learn, is that people cannot be denied. I repeat, people cannot be denied. Democracy is the rule of the game here and Thailand has come so far that nothing can deny the choice of the people. Not even a military coup; people no longer bow to elites domination of politics.

I hope last year's coup is the last coup for Thailand. We must work from now on to accept the majority's choice and make democracy work under the constitutional rule. Accept that Thailand is not anyone's; it belongs to all 65 million people, each vote counts equally and the country's political course shall not be decided by the opinion of any particular group or class. These are my hopes but I'm not sure if they would become true.

Right now, I'm pondering on a comment my friend made one day after the Sep 2006 coup: "The answer is blowing in the wind. When will we ever learn?"

...will we ever learn?