The electoral fraud cases are related to five political parties including the Thai Rak Thai, Pattana Chart Thai and Thai Ground parties and Democrat and Progressive Democratic parties.

The Thai Rak Thai was accused of hiring candidates of small parties to run in the election on April 2 last year (2006), to avoid the required 20 per cent of votes according to the law, as many of the party’s candidates were the only candidate for the constituency.

The Democrat Party was accused of co-operating with the People’s Alliance for Democracy to topple and frame the Thai Rak Thai government. It was also accused of hiring candidates from the Progressive Democratic to run in the election in Trang and frame the Thai Rak Thai.

It was also alleged of obstructing the candidate registration in Songkhla and hiring the leader of Better Life Party to frame the Thai Rak Thai.

The hearings for Thai Rak Thai-related have been heard every Tuesday from January 16, and the hearings have been scheduled until April 12. Meanwhile, the hearings for Democrat-related cases took place every Thursday from January 18 and have been scheduled until April 5.