Bangkok - The announcement that Barack Obama is the next US president was welcomed Wednesday by cheers and beers from a packed audience of Democrats Abroad gathered at a Bangkok restaurant to view the televised polling results.

For many at the Roadhouse Restaurant it marked the end of eight years of embarrassment abroad under Republican President George W. Bush.

"I think for all Americans the last eight years have been a disaster," said Jerrod Haguet, a former official at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific, who has spent the past 30 years in Bangkok.

"After 9/11 we had world sympathy that we managed to ruin by invading the wrong country, and ironically we see the party of the capitalists has done virtually everything to bring down the capitalist system," said Haguet, one of some 200 Americans who gathered at the restaurant to herald in a new president.

"I'm optimistic about Obama because there is only one way to go from where we are now," he added.

David Lymann, a US lawyer in Bangkok who does not classify himself either Republican or Democrat, was also optimistic about the future under Obama.

"Everyone wants America to do much better than it has over the past eight years," said Lymann.

Raj Naidu, a US real estate agent who had taken the morning off to watch the US election results, welcomed the outcome with a beer.

"For the past eight years that I've been working overseas I could never say I was proud of our president," said Naidu.

"This is going to help me a lot at work because I'm going to be happy," he added, hoisting his beer.

Meanwhile Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat welcomed Obama's victory over Republican contender John McCain at Bangkok's posh Grand Hyatt Hotel, where the US embassy hosted an election-watch event.

"This election was a good example of the democratic system at work," said Somchai. "Thailand puts great importance in the democratic system as we have just recently held our own election."

Somchai's democratically-elected government is currently under great pressure to resign, as the leading People Power Party (PPP) is likely to be disbanded soon for committing election fraud and has been heavily criticized as a proxy party for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who happens to be Somchai's brother-in-law.

Thaksin, a former telecommunications billionaire turned politician, was last month sentenced to two years in jail for abusing his premiership in 2003 by allowing his wife to successfully bid on a plot of land in Bangkok at a public auction.

Although he is living is self-exile in London with his wife Pojaman, who faces a three-year jail sentence on tax evasion charges, many believe Thaksin continues to run the government in Thailand with his vast fortune and deep political connections. (dpa)