Under a new penalty decreed by the Council for Democratic Reform Announcement No 27, party executives will have their voting rights revoked for five years if found guilty of fraud," EC chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said.

Suchart said he expected the prosecution to petition the Constitution Tribunal to factor in the new penalty during the sentencing review.

The new penalty came into force after the September 19 coup and was designed to stop cheating in politics.

The cancellation of voting rights would mean mandatory disqualification from contesting elections. The other penalties for electoral fraud are party dissolution and a two-year ban on convicted party executives managing or forming other parties.

The Thai Rak Thai Party is accused of bankrolling small parties to contest the April 2 election.

EC member Prapun Naigowit said the Constitution Tribunal was expected to rule whether the new penalty could be imposed in cases of fraud committed before its enactment.

The tribunal on Thursday decided to split the electoral-fraud charges into two cases. One case is centred on the charges against Thai Rak Thai and two small parties. The other involves the Democrats and another small party allegedly attempting to frame Thai Rak Thai. Hearings of the cases will begin in full swing next month.

After being informed of the tribunal's new procedures, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said he expected a speedy conclusion of the trial.

Thai Rak Thai acting leader Chaturon Chaisang said he would wait for the tribunal's ruling on the enforcement of the new penalty before commenting on the issue.

In a related development, the EC has forwarded a request for public prosecutors to initiate a tribunal review to dissolve the Ruam Palang Thai, Progressive Democratic, Dhammocratic, Rak Thailand, Thai Chuay Thai and Palang Dharma parties for failing to meet the minimum number of 5,000 members.