BANGKOK Billionaire telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra fell just short of an overall parliamentary majority in Thailand's general election, a final tally by the Election Commission showed on Friday. Thaksin, 51, scored a runaway victory at the national polls on January 6, winning almost twice as many seats as his nearest rival, outgoing Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. Early unofficial results showed Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party taking 256 of the 500 seats in the Lower House of Parliament. But the Thai Election Commission (EC) then ordered several rounds of by-elections after widespread allegations of cheating. A final by-election for a single constituency in Thailand's central Nakhon Nayok Province was held on Thursday and won by the tiny Chart Thai Party of former prime minister Banharn Silpa-Archa, a senior EC official said. "The counting is over and we have faxed the final result to the EC in Bangkok," Annop Thienthong, head of Nakhon Nayok Provincial Election Center, told Reuters. The final total gave Thaksin's Populist Party 248 seats and Chuan's Democrat Party 128 seats. Thaksin has already secured power by forming a three-party coalition with Chart Thai and the New Aspiration Party of former premier Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. This bloc will give Thaksin control of 324 seats, allowing him to prevent any no confidence motion against him, which would require the support of at least 200 members of Parliament. --------- Governor Could Be Finance Minister --------- Thaksin has made it clear he will appoint candidates from his own party to most of the top cabinet posts, but may ask Chavalit, a former Thai Army chief, to become defense minister. Thaksin said on Friday he had a few potential candidates in mind for the finance minister portfolio, one of whom was Bank of Thailand Governor Chatu Mongol Sonakul. Asked who he would pick as his finance minister, Thaksin told reporters: "(Chatu Mongol) is one in my heart ... but there is no plan to replace him at the Central Bank unless he chooses to take the finance ministerial job." Thaksin's own future is unclear following an indictment by Thailand's anti-corruption watchdog, which has charged him with not declaring assets when he was a minister in the 1990s. A ruling on Thaksin's case by the Constitutional Court is likely to take many months and may not be delivered for years. Thaksin has said he has done nothing wrong. The National Counter Corruption Commission said late on Thursday it would forward its findings on the indictment, which include allegations over various share transfers, to Thailand's Securities & Exchange Commission and to the Tax Department. The commission ruled in December Thaksin has deliberately submitted false asset statements, concealing some information from the authorities in the late 1990s. If the NCCC's indictment is confirmed by the Constitutional Court, the telecoms tycoon would be banned from politics for five years, forcing him to step down as prime minister. NCCC Chairman Ophars Arunin said the panel agreed to forward evidence related with share transfer irregularities to the involved authorities to allow further investigation. He gave no further details. In December, the NCCC formally charged Thaksin with hiding his assets by registering them under the names of several domestic servants. Thaksin, who founded the country's largest telecoms firm -- Shin Corp. -- was twice deputy prime minister in the governments of Banharn and Chavalit during the 1990s. The assets were worth 4.54 billion baht ($107.3 million) and were omitted from three asset reports before and after he took office as a minister in 1997 and 1998. (Reuter)