Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, has claimed victory but acknowledged a strong protest vote in an election boycotted by the opposition. The opposition held weeks of protest rallies to demand his resignation for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Thaksin, who denies any wrongdoing, offered on Monday to set up a reconciliation committee to judge whether he should step down despite receiving what he said were more than half the votes cast on Sunday - his previously announced threshold for staying in power.The Election Commission was expected to release complete election returns on Tuesday, but Thaksin said preliminary results showed his party won 57% of the votes. Critics rejected his idea of a reconciliation committee as insincere and called for new anti-government protests this week. Ong-Art Klampaiboon, the opposition Democrat Party spokesman, said: "The prime minister just wants to find ways to stay in power by finding new marketing strategies and new products."