Abhisit plays down being cheated out of a victory

"The people will be the judge on any attempts to deprive a winning party from forming the coalition," he said.

He urged voters to scrutinise candidates and policies instead of allowing money to domainate the campaigning, saying the failure to do so might end up having MPs willing to betray their trust.

He also chided his rival People Power Party for opposing the Sonthi Boonyaratglin committee in charge of fighting votebuying.

"I am suspicious why People Power is critical of measures designed to fight electoral fraud," he said.

People Power secretary general Surapong Suebwonglee earlier said the Sonthi committee might be a pretext to undermine his party's campaigning activities.

Surapong raised a postelection scenario that regardless the election outcome, MPs might vote to elect a most qualified party leader as prime minister bypassing the Democrats.

The Nation