Thai court disbands election-winner Move Forward

Critics say the decision makes a mockery of Thai democracy and cements the power of the country’s military and royalist establishment.

Supporters gather at the Move Forward Party headquarters in Bangkok ahead of the Constitutional Court’s ruling. Picture: AFP

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has dissolved the country’s largest political party – Move Forward – and barred 11 leaders from politics in a controversial but widely-expected decision barely 15 months after the reform party pulled off a stunning election victory.

The court found MFP guilty of trying to “overthrow the king as head of state” by advocating during last year’s election campaign for amendments to Thailand’s lese-majeste laws that punish any perceived insult to the monarchy with up to 15 years’ jail.

“Expressions of opinion towards legal amendments and the vote campaigns posed significant threats to national security,” the nine-judge panel found. MFP MPs have been given 60 days to find another party or lose their seats.

Among those to be banned from politics for ten years was the party’s Harvard-educated, 43-year-old former leader turned chief adviser, Pita Limjaroenrat, and Chaithawat Tulathon, his successor as leader.

Thai political analyst Napon Jatusripitak told The Australian the decision was the “aftershock of the real earthquake that happened when the Constitutional Court ruled in January that advocating for the amendment of Lese Majeste laws was unconstitutional”.

“It sends a message to Thai voters that Thailand is not a democratic country if it can disenfranchise up to 14 million voters. And it sends a strong message to political parties that there are very clear lines they can’t cross,” Dr Napon said.

The decision not only “exposed the limits of Thai democracy” but narrowed the window for creating political change in Thailand and cemented the conservative military and royalist establishment’s hold on power, he added.

Ahead of the decision _ which another analyst on Wednesday likened to a “judicial coup” _ supporters packed MFP Bangkok headquarters, holding placards and downing cups of a new drink launched for the occasion, dubbed “Shrug – Go On”.

Yet party officials appeared sanguine, after hinting in recent weeks that a successor party was ready to go.

“Don’t give in, don’t lose hope. Keep the anger,” Pita told supporters last weekend, insisting the fight was about something bigger than his own personal future.

Former Thai prime ministerial candidate and former Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat. Picture: AFP

“I hope I am the last one (to be banned). I hope Move Forward is the last party (to be dissolved).”

MFP’s dissolution is the latest in a string of similar decisions by Thailand’s courts designed to maintain the conservative military and royalist establishment’s hold on power.

Its predecessor party, Future Forward, was disbanded in 2020 and its leaders barred from politics for ten years _ sparking massive, year-long street protests that dissipated only with Covid restrictions and mass arrests _ after it won a third of all votes in 2019 on an anti-junta platform.

Thai Rak Thai, the party of Thailand’s billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was dissolved in May 2007, after securing 77 per cent of all parliamentary seats in 2005 elections, as was its successor People’s Power Party which won elections in December 2007.

Those bans, too, triggered mass protests and deadly clashes between pro-Thaksin (red shirt) and anti-Thaksin (yellow shirt) supporters.

But Dr Napon said he doubted MFP’s disbandment would spark comparable protests given the readiness of MFP leaders to accept the decision, and the fact many 2020 protest leaders were now fighting lese-majeste charges.

Move Forward earned the right to assemble a coalition government after winning the most votes and more than 30 per cent of lower house seats _ 151 out of 500 elected seats _ in May 2023 elections on a campaign promising social and electoral reform.

It pledged to reduce the maximum prison term for defaming the king from 15 years to one year and/or a fine of 300,000 Thai Baht ($A12,900).

While it initially formed a tentative governing pact with the populist Pheu Thai, the party of telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, the military-held Senate blocked Pita’s appointment as PM.

Sensing failure, Pheu Thai jumped ship to an alliance with its former political enemies from the country’s military-backed parties.

The deal allowed Thaksin to return to Thailand after 15 years in exile and the party to install its own PM candidate, businessman Srettha Thavisin.

But Thavisin now faces his own court case next week for attempting to appoint a former convict to his cabinet, while Thaksin has been charged with violating lese-majeste laws.