Vasana was giving evidence in his defence against criminal charges brought by Democrat Party executive Thaworn Senniam.

Those charges allege the commission mismanaged the April 2 election. Thaworn also alleges the EC illegally permitted new candidates to run in re-elections held in several constituencies on April 23.

But Vasana testified yesterday that the commission committed no offence. It fulfilled its statutory obligation to return a government within 30 days of balloting.

It was forced to do so in spite of the election boycott by the country's main opposition parties, he argued.

"The EC tried but failed to get the opposition parties to call off their boycott, prompting it to manage the electoral process without the participation of the Democrat, Chat Thai and Mahachon parties," he testified.

He said once an election was called, the commission had a duty to see it concluded.

The commission tried to get the opposition parties to participate, and even offered to amend the election date, he said.

Commissioners Prinya Nak-chudtree and Virachai Naewboonnien were assigned to convince the Chat Thai and Mahachon parties to field candidates.

Vasana himself lobbied the Democrat Party, he told the court yesterday.

All EC efforts were rejected, he said.

He claimed the Democrats refused to run in the poll because it wanted to overthrow the Thaksin-Shinawatra regime.

He told the court the commissioners refused to resign after the poll result was annulled because they were engaged in organising the April 19 Senate elections and local body elections slated for later this month.

The commission also had more than 1,000 election-campaign complaints to consider.

The court was told by Thaworn that the EC violated election laws to assist the Thai Rak Thai Party to overcome the 20-per-cent rule.

That stipulates uncontested candidates must win at least 20 per cent of the eligible vote to win a constituency.

Vasana told the court he had never participated in politics before becoming a commissioner.