Pramuan said the purpose of his new book, "People Power", was to inspire the public to be politically aware and encourage them to take part in political activities. "It is a political book in the 'powers' series. I hope the book helps relieve the situation in the country and strengthen the political sector,'' he said.

The book touches on the government's alleged abuse of power in calling a snap election on April 2 to whitewash itself. It also looks at the April 19 election for the Senate, which has been dubbed the "spouses and relatives'' Upper House because more than 70 per cent of the members elected are connected to or have strong links with government MPs due to family ties.

"It was the most disappointing election because the public cannot put any hope in these Senators to check the government. The election was a failure in the selection of independent bodies,'' he said.

The book also discusses the Election Commission's alleged bias towards Thai Rak Thai by allowing MP candidates from other parties to switch constituencies in follow-up rounds of voting to constituencies where the only candidate was from the ruling party. This meant the Thai Rak Thai candidates would not be required to get the votes of at least 20 per cent of eligible voters to win.

Pramuan also writes extensively about Thai Rak Thai, which he claimed gave its MPs a monthly allowance of Bt50,000 each, an expense of more than Bt200 million per year for the party. But to win an election a large party may spend up to Bt5 billion, he says.

He points out that every party or party leader must find financial backers. Most businessmen who need favours from government have to kowtow to the politicians by returning them with interest. The more power politicians have the more tea money they can demand from businessmen who want government concessions. The highest rate is up to 30 per cent of a project's value, Pramuan writes.