Court bans largest Thai political party over pledge to change lese-majesty law

Thailand’s constitutional court has ordered the dissolution of the country’s most popular party, and banned its leaders from politics for 10 years, over its election promise to reform the country’s strict lese-majesty law.

Move Forward, a youthful pro-reform party, won the most votes in the 2023 election after pledging major changes to the country’s political system, including a promise to amend a law that punishes criticism of the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison for a single charge. However, the party and its leader were blocked from taking power by military royalist opponents, and have since faced legal cases.

The constitutional court decided unanimously on Wednesday to dissolve the party, and ban its executive committee from politics for 10 years, including its former leader Pita Limjaroenrat. The case followed a decision by the same court in January, which ruled that its pledge to reform lese-majesty law was unlawful and that it must cease such efforts.

Speaking at the party’s headquarters after the verdict, Pita said their movement would continue, and that a new party and leadership would be formed.

“I understand that you might feel disappointment, angry, resentful, or you might have tears. I won’t blame you. Today, for one day, let us be sad and angry as much as needed,” he told supporters.

“Tomorrow we will draw a line in front of us, and we will walk across it. We will take the resentment, anger, the energy that exists now, we will not let it consume us. We will push it and let it explode in every voting booth.”

Outside the party’s headquarters, supporters cheered MPs and chanted: “Move Forward, march on,” a slogan the party has used in the run-up to the verdict. MPs wore black for the occasion.

Details of the party’s successor, which Move Forward MPs can join, will be announced on Friday.

Thailand’s courts have frequently dissolved political parties and banned politicians, while the country has experienced two coups since 2006, part of an ongoing power struggle between popular parties and the conservative establishment.

Move Forward’s predecessor, Future Forward, was disbanded by a court ruling in 2020 for violating election funding rules, in a case its supporters said was politically motivated. The judgment triggered mass youth-led protests, which called for changes to make the country more democratic, and broke a longstanding taboo by calling for reform of the royal family. At least 272 people have since been charged with lese-majesty. In May, the political activist Netiporn Sanae-sangkhom, 28, who was charged under the law, died in pre-trial detention after spending 65 days on hunger strike calling for an end to the imprisonment of political dissidents.

Move Forward had appealed to young people who took part in such protests; however, it also managed to attract support from a much wider cross-section of voters who wanted political change after almost a decade of being ruled by the former coup leader Prayuth Chan-ocha.

There are no indications that the decision will immediately lead to large-scale protests. However, analysts say that even if the party is dissolved, this will not undo public sentiment, especially among younger generations, who have demanded changes to Thailand’s political system.

“Maybe [young people] will not immediately jump out to take action or to demonstrate against the ruling, but still in the long term – they are not going to change their minds,” said Panuwat Panduprasert, political science professor at Chiang Mai University.

Chaithawat Tulathon, the party’s outgoing leader, said the verdict would have implications for more than just the Move Forward party and its members. It set a dangerous precedent for interpreting the law and the constitution, he said.

“The impact of today’s verdict risks, in the long – term, making our constitutional monarchy system mutate into another system,” he said.

Amnesty International and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia) both condemned the decision. Deprose Muchena, a senior director at Amnesty International, said the Thai authorities should stop weaponising laws, adding that lawmakers were “simply performing their duty of proposing laws”.

Asked about whether the successor party’s approach would differ, Sirikanya Tansakun, who has been tipped as a future leader, said its ideology would remain the same, though its strategy was dynamic and adaptable. On the issue of lese-majesty reform, she said all members “believe there’s an issue with this law”, but added “the methodology will need to be discussed in more details once we move to the new home”.