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Snoh said if the Council for National Security or coup makers have a political party set up for their political vehicle, they would provide a big chance for the old power clique to strike back and regain power.

Speaking at a symposium titled "political parties' role under the convention on political development" at the democracy fair at Muang Thong Thani, Snoh said supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra would claim that their boss had been politically harassed because the military leaders wanted political power.

"[Anti-coup leaders] who are being detained at Bangkok Remand Prison will come out to say that CNS leaders are real dictators," Snoh said.

"They will say their boss had been persecuted and the military did not stage the coup for the sake of the people but for themselves because a political party is set up to let the coup makers retain power. Wait and see."

He said a lesson had been learnt from the case of the Samakkhi Tham Party.

The Samakkhi Tham Party was set up to contest the election in 1992 after the 1991 coup. The party won most House seats and invited the coup leader, Gen Suchinda, to become the prime minister. Suchinda was forced to step down following street protests in May 1992, which turned into bloodshed.

Snoh said he once warned Suchinda not to enter politics and now he would like to give a similar warning to CNS leaders.

Speaking to reporters after the symposium, Snoh said he had a concern for CNS Chairman Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin following reports that he might contest the next election as a Rak Chart Party candidate.

"I am not worried that Sonthi will become my political rival. But I've warned several times that it's not time for Sonthi and CNS leaders to play politics yet," Snoh said.

He said the CNS needs to go on working to ensure that the country would have security and would have genuine democracy by making sure that the next election would be clean and fair.

"I don't believe Sonthi will play politics now although the environment seems to be prepared for him. I would like to warn him like a brother. It's not his turn now," Snoh said.

He said if Sonthi entered politics now, the country would end up in severe rifts because the Thaksin's supporters would claim that Thaksin was ousted because the CNS leaders wanted power for themselves.

The rifts would affect the country's image and would cause the budget for campaigning for voters to vote in the public referendum on the draft constitution would be in vain, Snoh said.

Snoh said he saw that it was fine for Gen Pallop Pinmanee, an adviser to the Internal Security Operations Command, to stand in for the next election as the Rak Chart Party candidate.

"No problem because Wallop is not a CNS member," Snoh said, commenting on Pallop's announcement .

Pallop told reporters  that he would contest the election in Bangkok as Rak Chart candidate.

He said he wanted to play politics to help solve the unrest in the three southern border provinces.

Pallop said the Rak Chart is not a party of the military because it has only a few retired military officers as members.

Also , Sonthi denied that he had been approached to become a member of the Rak Chart.

He said he had just known Captain Khajit Hapnanont, a party founder, but he did not talk with Khajit over joining the party.

"It's not my time to make a decision over my political future yet," Sonthi said.

When asked which party he was interested in, he said he used to like the Thai Rak Thai and Democrat parties and he did not have much knowledge about the Rak Chart.

He reiterated that he had not made up his mind yet when asked what would be his factors for deciding whether to enter politics.

The Nation