Legal experts for the Thai Rak Thai Party demanded that university lecturers and students stop campaigning against the Thaksin Shinawatra government.

They argued the Constitution stipulated government officials must be politically neutral.

The party's Peerapan Palusuk added that a Royal decree for a general election was effective and political moves risked breaking election laws. He claimed executives of universities such as Chandrakasem Rajabhat and the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida) had denied anti-government activities were sanctioned by the schools.

He said a Nida rector informed him that a campaign led by lecturer Thaweesak Sootakawathin had nothing to do with the institute. Protesters had been asked to take their demonstrations off campus.

But, Peerapan claimed Chandrakasem Rajabhat and Chulalongkorn universities and Nida groups were "exploiting their institutes' names for personal gain. They must stop confusing the public",' he said.

Another member of the Thai Rak Thai legal team, Surachai Baochanya, said Article 70 of the Constitution stipulated that government officials must be politically neutral.

Meanwhile, Chiang Mai University Mass Communications Faculty Dean Assoc Prof Sodsri Pao-inchan denied there were moves on her school's part to seek Thaksin's ouster.

But, she said law, social sciences and mass communications departments had exercised their right to express a political opinion.

She expressed respect for academics with courage to gather signatures seeking political reform or the removal of Thaksin.

"Being an academic and a teacher does not mean just providing knowledge to students but thought, too. If academics are not bold enough to express their political opinions they cannot fulfil their roles completely, she said.

Teachers had a right to express rational and logical opinions as long as they were not influenced by emotion. She had been doing so for three decades and no university executive had dared to stop her, she said.