The parties concerned and legal pundits are split on two key questions should the Constitution Tribunal decide on May 30 to hand down guilty verdicts in cases of electoral fraud, which is punishable by party dissolution.

The questions relate to the political future of the former ruling Thai Rak Thai and former opposition Democrat parties and their executives should the Tribunal's verdicts go against them.

The first question is whether the disbanded party could register a new party with the same name. The second issue is whether the party executives will face a five-year ban on standing for elections on top of a ban from holding office in a political party.

Under relevant laws, the executives of a dissolved party face a mandatory ban on forming and managing a new party.

After the September 19 coup the junta issued an announcement - equivalent to an executive decree - disqualifying executives of disbanded parties from contesting elections, but legal pundits have doubts as to whether it can be enforced retroactively, as the alleged electoral fraud happened before the coup.

Election commissioner Sodsri Satayatham said that any party ordered disbanded by the courts could not use its old name or any of its spelling variations for a new party.

"There are clear precedents, such as the case involving the Seri Thai Party, where the Constitution Court ruled against renaming the party with a different spelling," she said.

Sodsri said she was uncertain whether the disqualification as electoral candidates would apply to punished executives.

"Under the Criminal Code, the disqualification cannot be applied retroactively but this is not a criminal case," she said.

"I hope the Constitution Tribunal will hand down a clear sentencing on the guilty executives so as to avoid conflicting interpretations," she added.

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said he saw no reason why a new party could not be registered with an old name.

"I recall that the New Aspiration Party had named itself again as a new party after its merger with the Thai Rak Thai Party," he said.

He said he understood the law encouraged parties to retain names or unique features familiar to constituents.

He said the Seri Thai Party was denied its name because of the similarity to the Seri Thai Movement, which had no link to it.

Expressing confidence that his party would win a favourable verdict, Abhisit refused to speculate on his fate and that of fellow party executives.

Thammasat University law lecturer Somkid Lertpaitoon said there had been many cases where parties and politicians had faced retroactive penalties.

"The 1997 Constitution prescribes a ban on retroactive punishment only in criminal cases," he said.