"The ruling party spread false information relating to the opposition's boycott of the April 2 snap election," Democrat deputy leader Jurin Laksanavisit said yesterday.

The Thai Rak Thai Party's move was a malicious attempt to project the election boycott as condoning dictatorship when the opposition parties were, in fact, trying to expose the flawed leadership of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Jurin said.

"The opposition will ask the Election Commission to caution the ruling party about [engaging in] political frame-ups," he said in reference to the Thai Rak Thai ads placed in major newspapers on Wednesday.

The open letter contained four key points: Thaksin's flawed leadership - dubbed "Thaksinism" - public measures against illegitimacy, circumstances leading to the election boycott and whether such a boycott harms democracy.

The opposition argued that Thaksin had called the election in order to escape public scrutiny of his ethical standards relating to the Shin Corp sell-off and his self-serving abuse of democratic principles.

The Constitution grants leeway for election boycotts and the opposition decided to opt out of the electoral process as a means of peaceful resistance to Thaksinism. Voters can exercise their choice by casting either a "no vote" ballot or voting for one of the candidates, it said.

Chat Thai deputy leader Nikorn Jamnong said the ruling party colluded with small parties to avoid having to meet the requirement that lone candidates must garner 20 per cent of votes in a constituency.

In the South, the Democrats' backyard, small parties fielded candidates in every constituency even though they have few party branches in the region, he added.

Yossawadee Hongthong

The Nation