CNN —
A Thai court on Wednesday ordered the kingdom’s most popular political party to be disbanded, a verdict that delivers a major blow to a vibrant progressive movement and one that threatens to bring more political turbulence to Thailand.
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.
In its unanimous ruling, the court accused Move Forward of “undermining the monarchy” and so “the constitutional court has to inevitably disband the party.”
In January, the same court ordered the party to end its lese majeste campaign, accusing its leaders, including former prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat, of seeking to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.
Wednesday’s ruling goes further, dissolving the party and banning its executives from politics for 10 years – effectively disenfranchising 14 million people who voted for them and raising fresh concerns about the erosion of democratic rights in the kingdom.
Move Forward’s leaders have repeatedly said that dissolution will not stop their movement. Speaking to the Associated Press this week, Pita said they will continue to fight so that Move Forward “becomes the last party that joins the graveyard of political parties.”
It’s the first of two high-profile, politically sensitive cases with the potential to further entrench a power struggle between the establishment and progressives. Next week, the court is expected to rule on a petition seeking to remove Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office for appointing a lawyer who had served jail time to the Cabinet.
