A Thai court has ordered the dissolution of the Reform Party, which won the most seats and votes in last year’s elections but was prevented from forming a government.
The ruling also banned the charismatic young former chairman of Move Forward, Pita Limjaroenrat, and ten other high-ranking figures from politics for ten years.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling had been expected after it ruled in January that Move Forward’s election promise to change royal defamation laws was unconstitutional.
The court had declared that changes to the notoriously harsh lèse majesté law would amount to a call for the destruction of the constitutional monarchy.
Wednesday’s ruling is another stark reminder of how far unelected institutions are willing to go to preserve the power and status of the monarchy.
However, the verdict does not mean the end of the reform movement in Thai politics.
Move Forward’s remaining 143 MPs are expected to move to another registered party and continue their role as the largest opposition party in parliament.
“A new journey has begun. Let’s move forward together, people,” the party said in a message accompanied by a video on its social media platforms.
Chaithawat Tulathon, the opposition leader and one of the MPs barred from politics, stood up in the hall and bid farewell to his colleagues, saying it had been an “honour” to work with them.
This ruling “could raise the question of whether Thailand is a constitutional or an absolute monarchy,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University.
He said it was “on the one hand a déjà vu and on the other hand new territory”.
This is more or less a repeat of what happened in 2020, when the then Future Forward Party, which had also performed unexpectedly well in an election, was also dissolved and transformed into the Move Forward Party.
That ruling four years ago sparked massive street protests that lasted six months, led by a new generation of student activists and made unprecedented demands for greater accountability from the monarchy.
Authorities have since made extensive use of the lese majeste law to prosecute hundreds of protest leaders, including some members of the Move Forward movement.
The law was widely criticized as a restriction on freedom of expression in Thailand, and the organization had proposed lighter penalties – prison sentences of up to 50 years – and stricter prosecution procedures in its manifesto “Move Forward.”
Reformers’ fears that Move Forward would not perform as well in last year’s election as Future Forward did in 2019 proved unfounded.
The party exceeded all expectations, outperforming all other parties and becoming the largest party in parliament, a testament to the Thai voters’ strong desire for change.
However, the military-appointed Senate prevented the Move Forward party from forming a government despite its lèse majesté, allowing an eleven-party coalition of more conservative parties to take power instead.
With so many activists in prison, exile, or fighting criminal charges, large-scale protests like those in 2020 are much less likely today.
Even Move Forward’s very moderate proposals for a less stringent lèse majesté law resulted in the party being stripped of its top politicians, as was the case with its predecessor Future Forward four years ago.
And anyone who thinks of organizing protests similar to those four years ago knows that they too will face the harsh penalties of lèse majesté and several other far-reaching laws of the Thai penal code.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court, which has dissolved 34 parties since 2006, has long been the main guardian of the conservative status quo – at its center is the monarchy, protected by a politically assertive military. In addition, palace officials, senior judges, business tycoons, and military and police officers wield unaccountable power.
According to the military-drafted constitution, the Senate plays a crucial role in appointing constitutional judges and in the composition of other influential non-parliamentary bodies such as the Electoral Commission and the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The previous Senate was appointed by the military junta that ruled Thailand from 2014 to 2019 and redefined the political landscape in which parties must operate today and played a central role in preventing Move Forward from forming a government.
It was unclear what to expect from the new Senate this year – but the peculiar electoral system allows only those seeking a Senate seat to vote for candidates in multiple rounds. This, and some sinister backroom deals, has produced a new Senate with 200 seats, most of which appear to be linked to a party known for its uncompromising loyalty to the monarchy.
Additional reporting by Thanyarat Doksone in Bangkok
