Three people thought to be unfriendly to caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai Party yesterday failed to make it to the new Election Commission when the Senate voted to pick five out of the 10 nominees to fill the vacant EC seats.

Kaewsan Atibhodi, Nam Yimyaem and Wasan Soipisut were out of the running as a majority of the 187 senators picked other nominees.

The selection followed weeks of speculation that these three nominees would not be picked because of their history of opposing Thaksin. Pro-government senators were said not to be happy with them.

The five new EC members, whose appointments require royal endorsement, are Apichat Sukhakkanon, Somchai Jungprasert, Sumet Oupanisakorn, Sodsri Satayathum and Prapan Naikowit. The first four are judges, while Prapan is a state attorney.

Kaewsan, who recently resigned as senator, had regularly found himself opposing the government during his six years in the upper house.

Former Supreme Court judge Nam had chaired an EC investigative panel that had asked the Constitution Court to dissolve Thai Rak Thai for hiring small parties to act as candidates in the April 2 poll.

Judge Wasan had been involved in a case relating to Thaksin's alleged attempt to conceal assets in 2001.

The two other failed nominees are Udom Fuangfung and Wicha Mahakhun.

Kaewsan said after the vote that he was not upset with the result. He said he hoped that the selection of the new EC would be the first step towards ending the ongoing political crisis.

However, Kaewsan urged the new EC members to consider him for the vacant post of EC secretary-general. He said he wanted to do the job.

Each nominee needed to win votes from half of the 187 senators, or 94 votes, to become an EC member. If the first round of voting did not fill the five vacant seats, a second round was to be held. The candidates who won the most votes in the second round would fill the remaining seats, regardless of the first round results.

However, the closed-door session yesterday ended after all five EC members were selected in the first round. Prapan received 124 votes, Sumet got 120, followed by Apichart (106), Somchai (105) and Sodsri (104).

Kaewsan received 101 votes, Wicha got 73, followed by Nam (63), Wasan (61) and Udom (19).

Before the closed-door session began, senators debated the findings of an investigative panel that vetted the backgrounds of the 10 nominees. The panel was chaired by Senator Sawai Prammanee.

Seri Suwanpanont, a member of the panel, said Sawai was a big obstacle to the investigation because he tried to pressure the panel to conclude its report although some allegations against certain nominees had not been investigated.

He said Sawai wanted to favour a big political party that did not want the October 15 election to be delayed, so he tried everything he could to pick the new EC as quickly as possible.

Senate Speaker Suchon Chaleekrua rejected allegations that he and his close aide Sawai had attempted to hamper the panel's investigation. He said he had only informed the panel to meet the deadline when he met the panel's members.

Weeks ahead of yesterday's selection, the three rejected nominees - Kaewsan, Nam and Wasan - were said to be out of the running because they were seen as potential threats to Thaksin and Thai Rak Thai ahead of the upcoming election.

The EC seats have been vacant since the last commissioners resigned after a court ruling in late July that saw them jailed for mismanaging the April election.

The new EC selection has also extended the need for a caretaker government, which has been in place since the House was dissolved in late February.

Meanwhile, political scientist Prayad Hongthongkham said he believed the new EC members would do a good job in the forthcoming polls because they had passed the scrutiny of the Supreme Court and the Senate.

He said he was not surprised to see that the three rejected nominees had failed to join the EC because they were widely to be anti-government.

Warin Thiamcharas, secretary to the PollWatch Foundation, said he did not understand the logic of the senators who did not select Kaewsan, Nam and Wasan.

He insisted that the three nominees were neutral and had only acted according to their conscience. He added that they were not under the influence of political groups.

 "I will perform my duty as best as I can even though I do not have experience in organising the election," Apichart said. "I will learn about the job as fast as I can because time is running out. The election must be postponed but not later than one month,''

He said he would have to discuss the issue of postponing the poll with other commissioners.