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A court in Thailand has ordered the dissolution of the reformist party which won the most seats and votes in last year’s election - but was blocked from forming a government.
The Move Forward Party won a stunning electoral victory in 2023, winning the most parliamentary seats on an anti-establishment reform agenda that drew huge support across the country, particularly among young people disaffected by years of military-backed rule.
The Constitutional Court in Bangkok ruled Wednesday that Move Forward should be dissolved, following a request from Thailand’s Election Commission, over the party’s campaign to amend lese majeste, the country’s notoriously strict royal insult law.
The ruling also banned Move Forward's charismatic, young former leader Pita Limjaroenrat and 10 other senior figures from politics for 10 years.
The verdict from the Constitutional Court was expected, after its ruling in January that Move Forward’s campaign promise to change royal defamation laws was unconstitutional.
The court had said changes to the notoriously harsh lese majeste law was tantamount to calling for the destruction of the constitutional monarchy.
Wednesday's verdict again serves as a stark reminder of how far unelected institutions are willing to go to preserve the power and status of the monarchy.
But the ruling does not mean an end to the reformist movement in Thai politics.
The surviving 142 Move Forward MPs are expected to transfer to another registered party and continue their role as the main opposition in parliament.
Chaithawat Tulathon, the leader of the opposition and one of the MPs barred from politics, stood up in the chamber and bid farewell to his colleagues, saying it was an "honor" to work with them.
This verdict "may raise the question whether Thailand is a constitutional monarchy or an absolute monarchy", said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University.
Lewis Musonye
