The People's Alliance for Democracy yesterday recommended that a new election be delayed to allow former MPs to overcome the 90-day rule and switch party loyalty ahead of the polls.

"The overcoming of the 90-day rule will destroy the existing political alliance, the root cause of the political crisis," PAD leader Somkiart Pongpaiboon said.

Somkiart was speaking at a public forum in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Under the election law, aspiring candidates are required to maintain their party membership for 90 days before being eligible to register as candidates.

The rule is seen as chaining government MPs to the Thai Rak Thai Party.

"The political crisis will not be resolved if politicians have not been released from the ruling party's political shackles," he said.

Somkiart said the Election Commission should step aside in order to allow the Supreme Court to restore the credibility of the electoral process.

The new EC and relevant political parties should then designate a new election date more than 90 days in the future, he said.

Thai Rak Thai deputy leader Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan said her party was ready to accept any election day as agreed by the EC and political parties.

"The ruling party has no preference for the election date, be it held in 60 days, 90 days or 120 days," she said, referring to tomorrow's meeting of parties called by the EC.

The party pledged not to obstruct its members from switching allegiance, she said, expressing scepticism that many of her colleagues planned to defect.

The EC will not announce the election date tomorrow, as had been speculated, but will wait for the Cabinet Secretariat to take the lead in scheduling the enactment of a new Royal Decree relating to the new vote, a commission official said on condition of anonymity.

After the Royal Decree has been scheduled, the EC will then pick a Sunday falling between 50 days and 60 days of the enactment of the decree as the new election date, the official said.

He also denied speculation that the EC had colluded with Thai Rak Thai to pick either July 9 or 16 as the poll date.

Meanwhile, three small political parties confirmed yesterday they would take part in tomorrow's meeting with the EC to discuss a new election date.

These are the Phaen Din Thai (Thai Soil) Party, the Phalang Prachachoen (People Power) Party, and the Siam Party.

"I would ask the EC to waive registration fees for the new election, since we already paid the amount for the April 2 polls," said Karn Thienkaew, leader of the Phalang Prachachoen Party.

Siam Party leader Kaset Saiphanthong said he expected to hear comments and opinions on the new election and its schedule.

However, the three main former opposition parties - Chat Thai, the Democrats and Mahachon - have already announced they will shun the meeting until the EC commissioners resign to pave the way for the courts to nominate new commissioners for Senate approval.

A Thai Rak Thai source said the former opposition parties' refusal to attend the EC meeting was tantamount to pressuring the current four EC commissioners to quit.

"Given this, they want to see the next polls postponed by 90 days so that some Thai Rak Thai MP candidates can switch parties. In this scenario, no more than 20 Thai Rak Thai MPs are expected to move. The Chat Thai party will likely get many dissidents from Thai Rak Thai," the Thai Rak Thai source said.

A source from the opposition Democrat Party added that there could be a "secret" deal between Thai Rak Thai and Chat Thai to the extent that the Chat Thai leader, Banharn Silapa-archa, might take up the premiership following the next polls.

"Thai Rak Thai leader Thaksin is unlikely to be premier after this new election. He will likely remain party leader and wait for the next government to supervise political reform, after which he will stand in a new election for the premiership," the Democrat source said.