"I guess the five-year-old Thaksin regime has become like a super-powerful political animal. It's the dragon of Thai politics -  with giant wings and claws that could threaten anybody. So it's not possible to fight against this dragon in the conventional way. The only way we could deal with it is to remove its wings and claws, one by one," he said.

A deputy secretary-general of the opposition Democrat Party, Thaworn says he was turned down when he proposed to the party's executive committee in April that the party should take the election commissioners to court.

"Instead, I was told that if I really wanted to do it, I should do it in my individual capacity. So, on April 18, a few days after the second round of by-elections were held to try to fill up vacant constituencies, I filed the lawsuit against the EC chairman and three other commissioners on the grounds that they had acted illegally and dishonestly to help the Thai Rak Thai [TRT] Party win the April 2 election.

"As a Thai citizen with the right to vote and the obligation to pay taxes, I told the court that I was damaged by the EC, which essentially helped the TRT to have competing candidates in 38 constituencies, most in southern Thailand, so the party did not have to be subject to the minimum 20 per cent rule on winning ballots," he said.

Thaworn asserted that as a citizen he was entitled to a free and fair general election that would elect the prime minister, and that the EC had wasted taxpayers' money. A total of Bt2.3 billion had been squandered in organising the failed general election.

Given his status as an individual plaintiff, Thaworn effectivelystood alone against the powerful EC, who adamantly refused to step down despite growing public opposition to their office.

The Criminal Court ruled on Tuesday that the EC trio had committed serious offences against the country's democratic system by organising an unfair general election, the results of which were soon nullified by the Constitution Court.

The court has denied bail for all three jailed former commissioners. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has begun moves to nominate a total of 10 candidates, five of whom will be selected by the Senate to be the new election commissioners.

In an interview with The Nation, Thaworn said he set out on his mission to bring down the EC when he realised that the agency, supposed to be an independent body that ensures free and fair elections, had become a pivotal part of the Thaksin regime's plan to hold on to political power.

"My first offensive was in January this year when the EC illegally raised their own salaries. At the time, the opposition party was in the process of gathering MPs' signatures to initiate an impeachment process against these commissioners. Unfortunately, the votes in favour were only 124, one short of the minimum requirement of 125, so the move was aborted. Then Parliament was dissolved on February 24.

"In my opinion, the EC and other independent bodies such as the National Counter Corruption Commission are very powerful check-and-balance mechanisms under the Constitution, but most of them have been manipulated and abused in the past five years.

"They've become the wings and claws of the political dragon.

"The EC, for instance, is essentially the gatekeeper for those who would become the 500 members of Parliament, who would then select one of their number to be prime minister, who would then appoint another 36 persons to be members of his Cabinet. In short, the integrity of the election commissioners is of the utmost importance to the well-being of this country's democratic system.

"Given the court's ruling on the last of those election commissioners, all rivals of the TRT will now have fewer worries about the fairness of the next general election on October 15," said the former Songkhla MP, adding that the offensive against the Thai Rak Thai was not yet over and that his party would continue its efforts to clip the wings and claws of the "political dragon".

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

The Nation