Opposition from the Attorney-General means Thaksin would likely have to testify verbally to the Constitution Tribunal.

The current political situation would make it difficult for Thaksin to appear in person, Somsak said. The party's legal team did not even know where he was.

Arranging for a video conference would take time hence the team needed to know when the Tribunal wanted to hear him.

Constitution Tribunal member Nurak Mapraneet said the Tribunal would tell Thai Rak Thai next Tuesday if Thaksin would be summoned or how he could testify.

If his testimony was crucial, and he was not available on the designated date, it could be postponed, as there is still time left before the hearings are wrapped up, tentatively in April, he said.

Tribunal vice president Ackaratorn Chularat earlier noted other options such as asking Thaksin to file a written rebuttal.

Yesterday, former Election Commission chairman Vasana Puemlarp, as well as Suriya Songwit, chairman of the EC subcommittee that investigated allegations of election fraud against the Democrat and Progressive Democratic parties, testified to the Tribunal in the seventh hearing of the trial against the two parties.

They told the Tribunal that they did not check out all the documents and evidence thoroughly.

Democrat Bundit Siripan questioned Vasana's hasty consideration of the investigating panel's 1,500-page report. The panel finalised the report on June 22 last year, and four days later Vasana had decided to ask the Auditor-General to file an election complaint against the Democrats with the Constitution Court - now superseded by the Tribunal. Vasana said he had followed up regularly on the panel's work so he didn't read the report thoroughly.

Democrat Thavorn Senneam questioned a report that said he was responsible for handouts campaigning for a "No Vote" in Songkhla. Suriya had said some witnesses claimed he was among the group distributing the flyers at a market. A DVD was presented as evidence but he couldn't see the images properly, as the recording was not clear, he said.

Kornchanok Raksaseri

The Nation