Banjerd Singkaneti of Thammasart University's Faculty of Law said the results of Wednesday's election showed that the concept of "non-partisan" politics was not practical.

Suriyasai Katasila, a key member of the anti-Thaksin movement, said poll results had reflected the vast influence of the Thai Rak Thai Party as the majority of senators-elect were pro-government, or related to the party.

Chulalongkorn University's Khien Thirawit said about 75 per cent of the 200 senators-elect were tied to one of the four major parties, with the rest being former bureaucrats, academics, leaders of non-governmental organsiations or businessmen.

"Even though the majority of senators-elect appear to have close ties with political parties, there is still hope a minority of non-partisan senators, especially from Bangkok, will work independently, serving as a watchdog of the government," said Khien.

However, Banjerd of Thammasat said authors of the 1997 Charter seemed to have incorrectly designed the process in which people elect their senators.

"The aspiration to impartial senators is not attainable as it's against the nature of politics. If we try to stipulate that this or that elected body should be impartial, it's inevitably tied to political interests. Then it's not possible to have impartiality, because politicians would intervene to protect their own interests," said Banjerd.

He said many candidates had won because of partisan politics. He said the majority of the winners were supported by the same power base of elected MPs in many of the constituencies nationwide, so they were basically an extension of the political parties' power base.

"In the US, senators protect the interests of their states. In the UK, members of the House of Lords are similar to those in the Upper House. But here we try to have impartial senators, which I think is not possible," he said.