The outcome of the March 24 poll will not be changed following the dissolution of the Thai Raksa Chart Party (TRC), according to politicians.
Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, head of the Pheu Thai Party's strategic committee, said she did not think the disbanding of the TRC would lead to significant changes because politics was dominated by pro-regime and anti-regime camps.
She said the supporters of the dissolved TRC, touted as a political ally of the Pheu Thai Party, were expected to cast ballots for a party that shared their political stance, rather than switching to vote for the other side.
She insisted that TRC's dissolution had no impact on the party, dismissing allegations of collaboration between the two.
Some political observers suspect that the two parties formed a loose alliance for the election after Pheu Thai decided to field only 250 candidates in the constituency system even though there are 350 seats available.
Meanwhile, TRC fielded a total of 176 candidates in the constituency system.
She said the Pheu Thai Party opted to put up 250 candidates to stand in the contest in the constituency system due to constitutional limitations.
The Constitutional Court on Thursday unanimously voted 9-0 to dissolve the TRC over its nomination of Princess Ubolratana, the elder sister of His Majesty the King, to run as its prime ministerial candidate.
The court also decided 6-3 to ban the TRC's 14 executives from running in elections, setting up parties, or becoming executives of other parties for 10 years.
Khunying Sudarat said there has so far been no discussions on whether TRC election candidates, several of whom defected from Pheu Thai, would return to help the party.
Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Friday reserved judgement about the issue, saying it was too early to say how the TRC's dissolution would affect the outcome of the March 24 poll.
He said that based on a number of opinion surveys, as many as 40% of voters remained undecided as to which party to vote for.
Jatuporn Prompan, a member of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship and supporter of the Pheu Chart Party, said he was not in a rush to ask former TRC candidates to campaign for his party.
