One may argue that Thai Rak Thai has the right to defend itself. To be fair, the party's claims that the Democrats "staged" the visit to the Defence Ministry of small-time politicians who were allegedly "bribed" by Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura na Ayutthaya should be heeded. After all, it was Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban who dropped a bombshell on Thai Rak Thai by producing printouts of closed-circuit television footage showing a senior figure of a small political party visiting the Thai Rak Thai deputy leader at his office in the Defence Ministry.

But the joke is on the Election Commission and our entire political system for its failure to tackle such a major scandal in a proper manner. The closed-circuit TV pictures are a sexy news angle to the issue, but they are just that. There are more solid pieces of evidence that are being overshadowed by questions of whether or not the pictures are authentic or whether the visitors to the Defence Ministry were paid by Suthep to be there. Thamarak is crying foul over the video footage, but he has barely responded to other accusations in the case.

We shall not be diverted from the big picture. The case against Thai Rak Thai is huge and based on strong evidence unearthed by a fact-finding committee set up by the EC itself. The committee, headed by respected former Supreme Court vice president Nam Yimyaem, reported damning details, including bank-transaction records and compelling testimony from witnesses. The investigation panel's report implicates key Thai Rak Thai figures and spells out how they allegedly collaborated with the heads of the small parties to falsify official information on party-membership registration in order to allow unqualified candidates to run as Thai Rak Thai's "competitors" in the April 2 election. The report details various occasions when money was paid to the parties' leaders and candidates. The "meeting" in the Defence Ministry is just one of the alleged occasions.

The EC has given lukewarm attention to the findings and even questioned the credibility and accountability of its own investigative panel. This is an extreme act of defiance from an "independent" body already facing all kinds of criticism about its supposed integrity and neutrality. Compounding the situation are accumulating problems rocking the EC's own status. What we have as a result is a situation where nobody is actually handling the mammoth political case, allowing the Democrats and Thai Rak Thai to appear to be slinging mud at each other.

By refusing to quit for being allegedly biased in Thai Rak Thai's favour before and after the now nullified April 2 election, the remaining three election commissioners are exposing themselves to further charges of negligence and malfeasance because of the way they treated the Nam committee report. Following a sharp rebuke from Supreme Court president Charnchai Likitjittha, who said the three commissioners had lost their legitimacy to work as an independent body, the pressure will become almost unbearable, but even if the trio decide to call it a day today, it may be too late to save them from criminal investigation.

It's a high-stakes political situation. If the three commissioners resign, it will pave the way for a court-appointed new EC. This, most analysts believe, would be bad news for Thai Rak Thai, which could be dissolved if found guilty of bribing the small parties, an offence that would also banish its leader Thaksin Shinawatra from politics. Yet it seems the remaining commissioners have lost their grip on reality, in which case there is nothing they can do to influence the outcome.