in Bangkok THAI Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai - searching for the soft underbelly of his chief rivals - is seeking to show that his rival parties are breaching legal limits on election spending.
The move is part of the Democrat Party's campaign to focus attention on politicians buying their way into power in the July 2 election.
The premier is to ask the authorities whether spending by party headquarters should be included in the one million baht (about HK$299,000) limit on each candidate's election expenses.
The Democrats' secretary-general, Sanan Kachornprsart, warned that any party found by the courts to have violated the legal spending limit, could invalidate the election of all MPs.
There have already been bitter complaints that the new leader of the Palang Dharma (Buddhist force) party, telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, is spending much larger amounts in his campaign.
Palang Dharma used to pride itself on running a deliberately spartan campaign, but under the ambitious Mr Thaksin's new leadership, the party has deployed sophisticated election advertising, including spot TV adverts that cost up to 300,000 baht a minute.
Mr Thaksin denied the charge, saying his party did not buy votes so it had money to spare for advertising.