The Election Com-mission last night resolved to hold a third round of voting in 13 southern constituencies where candidates from the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party failed to get the minimum 20 per cent of votes required to ensure their election, EC secretary-general Ekkachai Warun-prapha said.

In a unanimous decision, the four election commissioners scheduled the polling date for Saturday, with registration opening for candidates tomorrow, according to Ekkachai.

He said the EC would not hold another election even if Saturday's voting failed to fill all 500 seats in the House of Representatives. On Sunday the agency will endorse those winning candidates who have not violated the election law, and prepare the list of MPs-elect. On Monday, the list will be submitted to the House.

"This should meet the 30-day deadline set by the law. There's no penalty for failure to meet the

deadline but we consider it a rule

we need to follow," Ekkachai said.

The ruling party won fewer than half of the 40 House seats up for grabs in the second round of voting on Sunday and the polls were marred by acts of civil disobedience.

Seventeen Thai Rak Thai candidates emerged victorious, five of them standing unopposed in southern provinces, the Election Commis-sion said yesterday.

The party had 19 candidates standing unopposed, most in the South, and 13 of them failed to get the minimum 20 per cent of votes required.

Candidates missed the minimum mandate in three Surat Thani constituencies, two in Pattani and one each in Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Trang, Chumphon, Phuket and Phang Nga.

The South is a stronghold of the Democrat Party, which boycotted the general elections along with the two other opposition parties.

In one Nakhon Si Thammarat constituency, voting was cancelled as election officials failed to show up for work at five polling stations. The election has been rescheduled for today.

Thai Rak Thai lost to minor parties in nine constituencies in Krabi, Trang, Narathiwat, Phatthalung, Phetchaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan.

The People Power Party won in Krabi's constituencies 1 and 3 and Trang's constituency 2. The Khonkhoplodnee Party won in Phetchaburi's constituency 1, Phatthalung's constituency 3 and Narathiwat's constituency 1.

The Prachakorn Thai Party emerged victorious in Prachuap Khiri Khan's constituency 1 and Trang's constituency 4. A Palang Dharma candidate won in Krabi's constituency 2.

Sunday's by-election was held in 17 provinces, 13 of them in the South.

Thai Rak Thai deputy leader Pongthep Thepkanchana yesterday moved to prevent party members from seeking a Constitution Court ruling on whether the House can convene with some of the seats unoccupied.

Pongthep, who chairs the party's legal team, said the party would not ask caretaker Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrua to seek the Constitution Court ruling over whether the House could convene with fewer than 500 MPs.

Pongthep said: "The election is not over. There must be another round of elections. We have to wait and see what the EC will do with 14 constituencies, when the election will be held and how many MPs will be endorsed. We will wait as long as we can. If things clear up before the end of the month then we might decide to do something,'' he said.

Suchon yesterday detached himself from the political impasse, saying the Senate would not consult the Constitution Court until the EC declared the election was over.

"The House does not have a duty to provide 500 MPs. The law stipulates that the EC has to complete the election in 30 days. It is not yet time to seek the court ruling,'' he said.

Kanit Nanakhon, dean of Dhurakij Pundit University's law faculty, dismissed as useless the attempt to consult the Constitution Court on whether to reconvene the House, saying any ruling was irrelevant.

"The Constitution Court is not the answer because the problem originated from an election, which was called without justification,'' he said.

He said he saw no solution and could not look to another state that had experienced similar trouble.

"No one can tell what the solution is. Lawyers and political scientists are lost. The election should not have happened. If [the leader] had a democratic mind, he would not have sought power and organised this type of election. That is why we are at a dead end,'' he said.

Surat Horachaikul, a Chulalongkorn University political scientist, said the government should not reconvene the House.

"If it does they will make a House of comedians. The government would be a joke,'' he said.

 Supon Thanukrit,

 Bancha Khaengkhan

 The Nation