Thai Court Disbands Popular Opposition Party Over Its Royal Reform Campaign

Thailand’s top court ordered dissolution of the nation’s largest opposition party for violating election rules, in a verdict that risks igniting fresh political turmoil in the Southeast Asian nation.

The nine-member Constitutional Court unanimously ruled that Move Forward Party’s poll promise to amend the lese majeste law, which protects the royal family from criticism, violated election rules. The court also banned its top executives, including prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat and opposition leader Chaithawat Tulathon, from political activities or running for public office for 10 years.

After the verdict, Pita denied the charge that his party sought to undermine the monarchy but vowed to continue the group’s fight to “break the cycle” of party dissolutions to make Thailand a true democracy.

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Under Thai election rules, about 150 Move Forward lawmakers in the 500-member House of Representatives, must now move to a new party within 60 days or lose their seats. A new party will be announced on Friday, Sirikanya Tansakun, who’s widely tipped to lead the new outfit, told reporters. 

The Election Commission had sought the party’s dissolution after a court earlier this year ruled that the group’s campaign for amending the royal insult law, also known as  as Article 112 of the Thai penal code, amounted to an attempt to overthrow the kingdom’s constitutional monarchy.

While the dissolution risks triggering political unrest, a ruling next week by the same court on a Petition to oust Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin over an alleged ethical slip-up may add to the drama. Already, investors are dumping the nation’s stocks, and any further upheaval can potentially derail Srettha’s attempts to reboot an economy that’s notched an average sub-2% growth rate in the past decade, well below its regional peers.

The baht extended declines to 0.4% after the court’s ruling, while the nation’s benchmark stock index closed 1.3% higher amid broader gains in the region. 

Investor concerns

Investors are more worried about the fate of the prime minister as his disqualification could disrupt government functioning and budget spending, according to Koraphat Vorachet, an investment strategist at Krungsri Securities Co. The market had already priced in the impact of a dissolution, he said.

Move Forward disrupted Thai politics by winning the most parliamentary seats in the general election held in May last year. Its supporters were largely young and urban voters who had grown frustrated with the nearly decade-long military-backed administrations.

Conservative sway

The Harvard-educated Pita, whose bid to form a government was thwarted by conservative politicians and a Military-appointed Senate, had denied the charges and accused the poll agency of not following proper procedures in the case. 

The upstart party antagonized Thailand’s pro-royalist conservative establishment that’s held sway over national politics since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932 with its call for reforms. Wednesday’s ruling is in line with the charter court’s verdict in January, when judges ordered the party to cease all its activities to amend the royal insult law.

“The defendant had undermined the status and protection of the monarchy,” the court said, adding that the party sought to gain votes and win the election by trying to pit the monarchy against the people and making the institution a target of criticism.

The dissolution is a full circle for Move Forward, which replaced its predecessor Future Forward when it was dissolved by the same court for breaching election rules for financing in 2020. Its key leaders were also barred from Politics for a decade. The ruling then sparked an unprecedented youth-led protest movement that called for the resignation of the then Military-backed prime minister and reforms of the monarchy.

‘Assault on democracy’

Thailand’s charter court has dissolved dozens of political parties and banned hundreds of politicians in the past two decades for minor and major breaches of electoral rules, according to local media.

A regional group of parliamentarians said the dissolution was an assault on democracy and called on the Thai government to soon amend the military-drafted charter restricting freedom of expression.

“This judiciary overreach not only undermines Thailand’s political stability but also tarnishes its international reputation,” Mercy Chriesty Barends, chairperson of the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said in a statement. “When people’s voices are disenfranchised, we start to lose trust in Thailand’s democratic integrity. There is no democracy without freedom of expression, as well as a viable and free political opposition.” 

The party was the most popular in the country, with Pita being the top choice as a prime ministerial candidate, according to a June survey by the National Institute of Development Administration.