It's quite a letdown that almost 400,000 people across the country threw away their right to vote in the advance Senate election last week.

They will not be able to go to the polls today as when they registered to vote early, their names were removed from the list of eligible voters. That might lead to a low turnout today.

It might imply that voters were not enthusiastic about the election and knew little about the role of senators.

A recent Suan Dusit poll showed that 43.8 per cent of voters thought senators have a similar role as MPs, while 31.3 per cent confessed they had no clue as to the Senate's function because they were not interested in politics.

There were also some voters talking about the right to cast "no votes".

Unlike the April 2 election, when voters cast the highest-ever number of "no vote" ballots to show their desire to oust Thaksin, today's election is different. There will be no need to use the "no vote" as a political tool to punish someone.

In fact, today's election is more important than voters think.

Since the April 2 election left voters with a "one-party government" and a "one-party Parliament" dominated by the Thai Rak Thai Party, there will be no MPs from opposition parties to scrutinise the party's rule.

That's why the next set of senators, whose term is six years, will be a lethal weapon to wear the oppositions' shoes - as long as the country gets as many good people as it can into the 200-seat Senate.

Two of the most important senators' roles are to impeach national politicians and to appoint and impeach members of independent organisations.

In other words, senators will perform checks and balances on the system.

We all know that the last group of senators disappointed people, especially when they selected members of independent bodies. Making no secret of their desire to side with the government, they became known as a rubber stamp chamber. Because of their leaning towards the government, some independent bodies, which were selected by the last Senate, did favours for the administration of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Undoubtedly, the recent political turmoil sprang in part from frustration with the independent bodies, which have allegedly sided with the government. Among them are the Constitution Court, the Election Commission and the National Counter Corruption Commission.

When people despaired over the loss of their right to a checks-and-balances mechanism exercised through the independent bodies, which they had relied upon, they had to take to the streets to protest against Thaksin.

However, having looked at the provincial candidates, most of whom have close ties with politicians, some people might not have much hope that the new senators will be able to escape the political connections.

Despite these slim hopes, just go out and make your best choice. Only your vote can put a few good men in the Upper House to counterbalance Thai Rak Thai's one-party rule. 

Jintana Panyaarvudh

The Nation