The denial came after Yasothon Senator Somboon Thongburan, who is seen as antigovernment, contended that the Thai Rak Thai was preparing to buy many senators to vote for Election Commission nominees who are not hostile to the ruling party and its leader Thaksin Shinawatra.

Some Bt50 million has already been spent to bribe 80 senators into electing progovernment candidates for various independent organisations, Somboon said.

At least three out of the 10 EC nominees have been regarded by some as antagonistic to Thaksin.

One is exsenator Kaewsun Atibodhi, who participated in several antiThaksin rallies and published an antiThaksin booklet which was confiscated by police.

The second candidate deemed as being adversarial to the caretaker premier is former judge Nam Yimyaem, who chaired the EC factfinding panel that implicated the Thai Rak Thai in hiring little known parties to run in the April election.

The third candidate is Wasana Soipisut, a former Constitution Court judge who stood as a witness against Thaksin for allegedly attempting to lobby Constitution Court judges to help him escape a guilty verdict during the 2001 assetconcealment case.

Suchon said the Supreme Court's judgement in selecting the 10 nominees is already a guarantee of having good and able people as new election commissioners, so there's no need for a bloc vote.

"I don't think anyone would dare. The new commissioners will be around for just two years and a new selection process will then take place. For the person who talks about bribing, it reflects his negative and nonconstructive thinking ... There shouldn't be such kinds of news and I will inquire about what [Somboon] claimed."

The Nation