BANGKOK - Thailand’s Election Commission said on March 12 that it would ask the Constitutional Court to dissolve the reformist Move Forward Party (MFP), which won the most seats in the 2023 election.
MFP upended Thailand’s political order in the election in May 2023, scoring the most votes after a campaign promising reform of the military, to tackle the country’s business monopolies and to amend strict lese majeste laws.
But its audacious bid – which shocked the Thai establishment – ended with it locked out of government following months of political wrangling.
The commission said in a statement that it agreed “unanimously” to seek the dissolution over MFP’s campaign pledge to reform the kingdom’s tough royal insult laws.
Earlier in 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled the MFP campaign pledge to loosen lese majeste legislation amounted to an attempt to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.
The court unanimously ordered the party to stop all efforts to reform the laws against insulting or defaming King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Thailand has a history of political parties being wound up by judicial intervention, including MFP’s forerunner, the Future Forward Party, which was dissolved in 2020 over financial issues.
“What happened today is not what we want to see and we do not want it to happen – but it is not unexpected,” MFP spokesman Parit Wacharasindhu told reporters.
“Most importantly, I do not want everyone to think party dissolution is normal, no matter what party it happened to,” he said.
“I do not want everyone to conclude that the MFP has been dissolved until the decision is made.”
There is no clear timeframe from the court. The Future Forward Party was dissolved just months after the Election Commission’s decision.
The ruling helped spur huge numbers to take to Bangkok’s streets in 2020, with unprecedented calls to reform the kingdom’s lese majeste laws.
MFP built on that protest movement, appealing to millions of Thais wearied by a lack of change after a near decade of military-backed rule.
But despite winning most seats in the election, MFP was excluded from the coalition that formed the government, and then leader Pita Limjaroenrat was blocked from becoming prime minister.
He returned to Parliament in January after the Constitutional Court cleared him of breaching election laws in a separate case that could have seen him barred from politics.
The lese majeste law is intended to protect the King – a revered, semi-divine figure in Thai society – from insult and those breaking it can face up to 15 years in jail per offence.
But critics say the legislation has been interpreted so broadly in recent years, so as to shield the royal family from any kind of criticism or mockery.
Reform of the lese majeste law, which is known in Thailand as 112 after the relevant section of the criminal code, was a major theme of the massive 2020 demonstrations, which featured unprecedented public criticism of the royal family.
Hundreds of people have faced royal insult charges in the wake of the protests, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a legal group that handles many cases. They include senior protest leaders and at least one elected Member of Parliament. REUTERS, AFP
