Members of the Thienthong family, the core of the Thai Rak Thai Party's Wang Nam Yen faction, yesterday said they were quitting the party after months of bitter infighting.

Joining them was Thai Rak Thai party-list MP Winai Sompong, who slammed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's decision to dissolve the House as a convenient excuse to "evade his moral problems" and avoid political reform.

Winai said the House was not the problem and Thai Rak Thai Party had no reason to be afraid, as it had enough MPs to continue governing.

Snoh Thienthong let his niece, Treenuch, read his statement, which apologising for supporting the "wrong person", Thaksin. Snoh had persuaded others to support Thaksin, he said.

"Today we know that it was an illusion, a marketing mechanism to ensure the success of the businessman [Thaksin]," the veteran politician said in the statement.

He added that Thaksin was too confident about the fact that nobody dared to caution him. Therefore, he cared much more about the country's GDP than morality.

Snoh said later he could not accept Thaksin's use of legal loopholes to benefit himself and his associates. "We [the Thienthong family] won't lose our sovereignty to anybody. The recurring chaos is because of only one man, who has exploited the nation's democracy, who planned and used the Parliament as a tool of legislation [to benefit himself and his associates]," Snoh said.

A former senior adviser to Thai Rak Thai, Snoh said he had warned Thaksin, but his ideas were greeted with insults by other members.

Snoh's son Sorawong said he, his father, and his two cousins, Thanit and Treenuch, had left Thai Rak Thai and would not be able to stand in the April 2 election.

Snoh said he and his family had not been preparing for the next election and therefore had not applied to join another political party. But even aged 72, he would still be able to contribute to the country in another capacity than as an MP.

Other Wang Nam Yen members had to decide whether to quit Thai Rak Thai, Snoh said, but added that he understood some members could not survive without their MP's salaries, so they might not be able to leave the party.

Sorawong said he would ordain as a Buddhist monk to show gratitude to his parents.

A source said Snoh and politicians close to him would join the Mahachon Party. The Constitution requires an election candidate to be a member of a party for at least 90 days before polling day to run as a candidate for the party.