Boonklee, a former Shin Corp chief, said he is now running his own business and has not been interested in politics. He is a right hand man of exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Speculation on new leader of TRT came as the Constitutional Tribunal handed down a landmark verdict on Wednesday that disbanded the Thai Rak Thai for election fraud and barred 111 executive members of the country's largest party from politics for five years.

The rulings amount to a dramatic shake-up of Thai politics.

Apart from Boonklee, other candidates were said to be Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and Surapong Suebwonglee.

Meanwhile former TRT executive Kantathi Suphamongkhon, who is also banned, said that he will be a lecturer at the University of California.

"I am sad to see many good people being banned from participation in elections for 5 years.  But most of all, I would like to see stability in Thailand. Throughout my life, I have worked selflessly for Thailand," Kantathi said in a e-mail sent to the Nation online.

 As his immediate future plans, he has been invited by the Regents of the University of California to teach International Relations as the Regents' Professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Nation