"Thaksin made many promises on big-budget projects and organisers of the Sanam Luang rally paid the transportation costs and other expenses for crowds of people," Democrat deputy spokesman Sathit Pitutecha said.

The main opposition party also reaffirmed its decision to boycott the April 2 snap election despite Thaksin's fresh appeal for it to rejoin the electoral process.

Election Commission chairman Vasana Puemlarp said he did not listen to Thaksin's speech but his subordinates would submit their report on the matter to him tomorrow.

Vasana reminded electoral candidates that they were banned from making campaign pledges that could be construed as vote-buying.

He declined to comment on Thaksin's pledge on Friday to raise the civil service pay by 5 per cent in 2008, saying he needed to study the speech in full before making a judgement.