Some 67 per cent agreed with the decision to jail the three without suspension and take away their voting rights for 10 years, while 33 per cent disagreed, according to the poll released yesterday.

The survey was conducted on 1,113 respondents in Bangkok and adjacent provinces between Tuesday and Thursday.

Asked if the three should be granted bail, 50.8 per cent were in favour because the defendants did not commit murder, but 49.2 per cent believed they should not be given bail.

With regard to the future of Thai politics, 35.2 per cent said they were not confident because party-dissolution cases had yet to be completed and it was unclear whether the prime minister would seek another term. Some 22.7 per cent said Thailand's future would be better, 17 per cent believed it would be worse and 25.1 per cent said it would be the same.

Asked if they would exercise their voting rights on October 15, 75.7 per cent said they would vote, 7.5 per cent said they would not and 16.8 per cent said they were not sure.

A total of 50.6 per cent said they had not decided which party they would vote for, 19.8 per cent said they would vote for the Democrats, 16 per cent would back the Thai Rak Thai, 2.4 per cent would vote for Chat Thai, 2.1 per cent would back other parties and 9.2 per cent would tick the "no vote" box.

Asked if Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's decision to seek another term would influence their vote, 48.9 per cent said it would have no influence because they would not vote for Thai Rak Thai, 34.2 per cent said it would influence them not to vote for Thai Rak Thai, while 16.9 per cent said it would influence them to vote for Thai Rak Thai.