On the contrary, if beleaguered election commissioners Vasana Puemlarp, Prinya Nakchudtree and Virachai Naewboonnien somehow get to retain their jobs either through a not-guilty verdict, or a guilty verdict that is not accompanied by an immediate jail sentence, the still volatile situation may very well erupt into another political crisis pitting supporters of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against his opponents.

No one is telling the Criminal Court, which has the judicial prerogative, what to do on this or any other case.

 Yet many people, feeling helpless in the face of the corruption of the country's democratic institutions during the five-and-a-half years under caretaker prime minister Thaksin, are counting on the court not only to see that justice is done in this particular case, but also to ensure that the country's ailing democracy has a chance to make a full recovery.

By signing a Royal Decree for a fresh general election to be held on October 15, His Majesty has put an end to five months of strong political uncertainty born of fear of potentially violent confrontation.

It now becomes clear for all to see that the incumbent election commissioners, notorious for their incompetence and servile attitude towards caretaker prime minister Thaksin, are the last remaining obstacles standing in the way of the normalisation of the democratic process.

In a note written by hand in the margin of the decree, His Majesty pointedly stressed that a free and fair election was a prerequisite for a peaceful end to the turmoil. The message from the monarch could not be lost on anyone. It shows that His Majesty shares the public's concern about the need for the country to hold an election that is free from vote buying and other fraudulent electoral activities.

And it is clear that the election commissioners can no longer be trusted to organise a free and fair election. In May, the Constitution Court dealt a devastating blow to what little credibility the EC had left by ordering a new poll to be organised after nullifying the April 2 election, citing the fact that irregularities in setting the election date and a lack of voter privacy had rendered the election unconstitutional.

Most people expected the EC trio to step down to take responsibility for their mistakes and for demeaning the dignity of their offices, but they managed to weather public ridicule and vowed to stay on to organise the new general election.

Today, the Criminal Court is expected to rule on whether the three election commissioners are guilty of malfeasance for instructing provincial election commissioners to admit candidates who lost out in the April 2 general election elsewhere to compete in the April 23 reruns in constituencies where unchallenged candidates failed to receive the required 20 per cent of all available votes. The EC move was widely seen as being biased in favour of Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party, the only main political party that fielded candidates in the general election boycotted by all key opposition parties.

The Criminal Court's verdict today will determine the future course of democracy and the destiny of this country.

In the future, the country's democracy will either be put back on the road to recovery or it will slip back into a vicious cycle of political corruption that could turn back the clock, and with it, roll back the political, economic and social progress that we have achieved so far.