BANGKOK: Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday (Aug 7) ordered the dissolution of the popular anti-establishment opposition party, Move Forward Party (MFP), over its controversial campaign to amend a law that protects the powerful monarchy from criticism.
The disbandment of the 2023 election winner is the latest setback for Thailand’s major political parties, which remain embroiled in a tumultuous two-decade battle for power with an influential nexus of conservatives, old-money families and royalist generals.
The decision comes six months after the same court ordered the Move Forward Party to drop its plan to reform the law on royal insults, ruling it was unconstitutional and risked undermining Thailand’s system of governance with the king as head of state. Move Forward denies that.
Though the dissolution is likely to anger millions of young and urban voters who backed Move Forward and its progressive agenda, the impact of the ruling is expected to be limited, with only the party’s 11 current and former executives banned from politics for 10 years.
Among the people affected by this ruling is the Move Forward Party’s former leader Pita Limjaroenrat, Thailand’s most popular politician.
Pita, 43, who led the reformist party to a shock first place in a general election last year, will be barred from taking any role in politics for the next decade.
Pita’s popularity soared ahead of the election as he struck a chord with young and urban voters with his pledge to reform Thailand’s strict royal defamation law, which rights groups say has been misused to stifle pro-democracy groups.
