Thai Election Winner Faces Dissolution Threat After Court Orders Halt to Royal Reform Push

Patpicha Tanakasempipat
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Thailand’s Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in last year’s election, faces renewed threats of dissolution following a guilty court ruling over its bid to loosen the country’s royal defamation law.

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Two fresh petitions were submitted to the Election Commission on Thursday urging the poll body to seek an order by the Constitutional Court to dissolve the upstart party and possibly ban its leaders from politics for 10 years.

The latest bid to disband the opposition party came a day after the charter court said that Move Forward and its prime minister candidate Pita Limjaroenrat covertly pushed an agenda to “destroy” the constitutional monarchy. The court also ordered the party to stop all activities and attempts to change Article 112 of the penal code that protects the monarchy from defamation and carries up to 15 years in prison for each offense.

READ: Thai Court Orders Opposition Party to Halt Royal Reform Push

“It’s now the duty of the commission to comply with the verdict of the court and it must ask the court to dissolve Move Forward Party,” said pro-establishment lawyer Theerayuth Suwankaesorn, who submitted one of the petitions. He had also brought the case that resulted in Wednesday’s verdict.

Political activist Ruangkrai Leekitwattana also filed a similar plea. He had previously moved against Pita, alleging that the former leader had violated election rules by holding shares in a now-defunct media company. The case was a major hurdle in Pita’s bid for prime minister and landed him a six-month suspension from lawmaker duties. The court cleared Pita last week.

READ: Blocked as Thai PM, Pita Remains Hopeful About His Future

The fresh legal hurdles throw into balance the fate of the reformist party, which won 151 seats in the 500-member parliament and almost 40% of the popular votes last year. Investors will also be monitoring, as a dissolution could potentially unleash more political unrest after a period of relative calm since a 2020 youth-led protest movement had petered out.

Now the party faces an uncertain future, with Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon saying his group now ran a “high risk” of getting dissolved and must prepare for the worst-case scenario. In that event, the lawmakers could still regroup under a different banner, but the executive members may be banned for a decade.

Political Earthquake

Move Forward’s shock performance in the May election led to an earthquake in Thai politics as its progressive platform openly defied the country’s royalist establishment. The conservative political parties and the military-appointed Senate, which are opposed to any move to amend the lese majeste, blocked Pita from winning the premier election.

The two petitioners cited a law governing political parties that requires the poll agency to lodge a petition with the charter court to dissolve any group that it deems to be seeking to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.

Thailand has a history of moving against pro-democracy parties, politicians, and activists. Move Forward’s predecessor, Future Forward Party, was disbanded in 2020 after the charter court found it guilty of illegal loans from its founder, auto-parts tycoon Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. He and other party leaders were banned from politics for 10 years.

“In the long term, if the courts rule against Move Forward, the repercussions for the party and its members will be devastating even if the ideology and movements that propelled the party to election victory remain alive,” said Napon Jatusripitak, a visiting fellow at Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.

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