The Election Commission only wanted to give voters a choice when it allowed additional candidates to register for the April 23 repeat vote, commissioner Virachai Naewboonnien told the court yesterday."In the first round of balloting on April 2, many lone candidates could not overcome the minimum vote rule of 20 per cent to declare victory and voters were unlikely to cast their ballots for them in the repeat vote. This prompted an attempt to break the stalemate," he said.

Virachai was giving his defence testimony during the criminal trial against the EC. The lawsuit was filed by Democrat Party deputy secretary-general Thaworn Senniam.

The commissioner and his two colleagues, Vasana Puemlarp and Prinya Nakchudtree, have been accused of dereliction of duty stemming from

the registration of additional candidates.

After the first round of balloting saw no winners in many constituencies, the EC understood from its reading of election law that it had been empowered to allow new candidates to contest the second round, Virachai said.

The commissioners also made

an honest decision to allow minor-party candidates to switch constituencies after defeat in the first round, he said.

"The EC enforced this decision before the Supreme Court banned defeated candidates from switching constituencies in the second round," he said, adding the mistake would not be repeated in future polls.

Prinya was next to give his testimony.

He said the Constitution empowered the EC to manage the electoral process, including the repeat vote.

The commissioner also stated that the charter contained no ban on candidates switching constituencies and revealed that he tried to convince two opposition parties, Mahachon and Chat Thai, to contest the repeat vote.

The two parties initially gave a positive response but later refused to field candidates, he said.

The Criminal Court will today hear two EC officials testifying for the defence.

In a related development, Democrat Party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban said EC boss Vasana committed perjury on Tuesday when he told the court of an offer to reschedule the election day if the Democrats called off their election boycott.

The offer came to light while Vasana was testifying.

"Vasana met me on March 17, nine days after the completion of the candidacy registration. At that date, it was impossible to change anything and he did not make any offer," Suthep said.

The discussion with Vasana focused on persuading him to reveal the names of two EC officials who allegedly helped a minor party rig their membership records in order to enable candidates to contest the poll, Suthep said.