He said there was no need for such consultation at the moment as the 30-day deadline has not been exceeded. "I also want to have the political crisis resolved so that peace can be restored," he said.

Under existing provisions, the Supreme Court and the EC selection committee are responsible for making separate nominations of candidates, on which the Senate then votes.

Article 138 of the Constitution states that nominations by the two sources shall be made within 30 days of an EC seat being vacated. But the selection panel has lacked a quorum, which has stalled the nomination process for almost a year since the death of EC member Jaral Buranapansri.

At their meeting on Tuesday, the presidents of the Supreme, Constitution, and Supreme Admini-strative courts said they believed Article 138 could be invoked for the judiciary to take charge of the nomination process once the election commissioners had vacated their positions.

Meanwhile, Senator Nipon Wisityuthasart said yesterday he had postponed his move to call on the EC members to quit, as he had failed to collect signatures of 30 senators, as earlier planned.

He said about 20 signatures had been collected, adding he would now expect to call on the election commissioners on Monday.

In a related development, senior officials at the Supreme Court yesterday urged supporters of the top three judges not to express their backing in public as that could be construed as the courts taking sides.

Charan Pakdithanakul, secretary-general of the Supreme Court president's office, said the courts were merely performing their duties to make the administrative and legislative branches function again.

Virat Chinvinitjakul, secretary to the court, urged the People's Alliance for Democracy to review a plan to show its support to the judges at the Supreme Court.