"Our country is under a constitutional monarchy - not a presidential system - and an effective system of partisanship is needed to ensure the smooth running of Parliament," he said.

Abhisit said he opposed any provisions designed to circumvent the role and power of political parties just for the sake of preventing a repeat of the runaway power seen during the Thaksin Shinawatra regime.

"If one particular party is bad, then we should try to rectify flaws involving that party instead of punishing all other parties," he said.

He said in every democratic rule under constitutional monarchy, the prime minister would be indirectly elected to office by MPs and political parties would be entitled to exercise their respective partisan lines on the vote.

Should charter writers allow MPs to assume office under an independent ticket, this would lead to intense bargaining for votes on the premiership and voters would not have any say on whom they wanted as their leader, he said.

Under the existing system voters choose their party, which in turn elects the prime minister on their behalf, he said.

"In order to anticipate confusion triggered by independent MPs, just look at the various Provincial Administrative Organisations, in all of which voters lost control of independent candidates once they cast their vote," he said.

Abhisit's comments came a day after the Charan Pakdithanakul subcommittee indicated that it might allow independent electoral candidates.

The subcommittee was appointed by the Constitution Drafting Committee and tasked to rewrite provisions on political institutions.

National Legislative Assembly Speaker Meechai Ruchuphan voiced support for Parliament to comprise two chambers - the House and the Senate. He said the writers should focus on how to ensure that the Senate is an impartial body to scrutinise draft bills.