New Delhi, Feb. 10 -- Thailand's political parties were considering their options Monday after the conservative Bhumjaithai Party's decisive election victory showed that voters chose stability over change, analysts said.

"This will be the first time in the 21st century that a conservative party has won the most seats in a general election, and it is a seismic shift in Thai politics," Ken Lohatepanont, a University of Michigan doctoral candidate, remarked in his online newsletter about Thai politics.

Electoral politics since 2001 had been dominated by populist parties loyal to billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who served as prime minister until he was ousted by an army coup in 2006, setting off a tussle for power against Thailand's conserv...