A court worker cleans the podium in preparation for the Constitution Tribunal’s verdicts on the fate of the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties today.

The nine members of the Constitution Tribunal went into secrecy mode when deciding on cases involving the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties.

The judges began deliberating around 1pm and three hours later speculation spread that they had taken a first vote on guilty or not guilty verdicts, before moving on to debate possible punishments.

"I believe my judicial colleagues will inform one another of their individual opinions before casting votes on the two decisions," tribunal judge Krairerk Kasemsant said before entering the conclave.

They met in a private meeting room in the office of the president of the Supreme Court, who is also the tribunal president.

Some 40 policemen stood guard outside the hallways linked to the room. The judges were left to form their decisions in the sealed room without aides and court officials.

Legal pundits expressed optimism the judges would complete writing their majority decisions by last night - instead of facing a last-minute rush today.

The decision on the Democrat case will be read today at 1.30pm, followed by the verdict on the Thai Rak Thai case.

A former Constitution Court judge said the tribunal judges would make every effort to prevent a leak, after heeding lessons from the 2001 asset concealment case involving ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Many court officials believe the judges may remain in the conclave before the verdict session.

Former judge and lawmaker Chai-anan Samudvanija, said he was confident the former ruling party would be disbanded, while the former opposition Democrats would remain intact.

"It is difficult to predict the outcome of the judicial review but I think Thai Rak Thai will be found guilty and some of its executives will face punishment," he said.

He said only those Thai Rak Thai executives linked to the fraud would be removed from the electoral process - lose their voting rights and be banned from running for office for five years.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking executive of the Council for National Security (CNS) believes the Constitution Tribunal will rule to dissolve both the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties, as well as punish executives involved in the electoralfraud cases.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the dissolution of both parties would "clean up" Thai politics.

"On the other hand, revoking the [voting] rights of all the executives would be unfair when many of them were not involved in the corruption in Thaksin Shinawatra's government but would have to be punished," he said yesterday.

"But if both parties are not dissolved, the CNS would be doomed. Politicians will attack back."

The source said the CNS was keeping an eye on five former key Thai Rak Thai executives: Chidchai Vanasatidya, Prommin Lertsuridej, Newin Chidchob, Sudarat Keyuraphan and Pongsak Ruktapongpisal.

Groups of Thai Rak Thai former executives and former MPs yesterday widely discussed the tribunal's possible rulings and aired many different opinions.

Meanwhile, the Democrats believed their party would not be dissolved.