Thai justice banned popular opposition figure Pita Limjaroenrat from politics for ten years and dissolved his pro-democracy party on Wednesday in a case related to the lese majeste law that opens a new cycle of instability.
“The Constitutional Court voted unanimously to dissolve Move Forward and ban the members of the executive committee who served from March 25, 2021 to January 31, 2024 (…) for ten years,” said Justice Punya Udchachon, reading the decision.
It concerns 11 leaders, including the current secretary general Chaithawat Tulathon, and its best-known personality, Pita Limjaroenrat, who loses his mandate as a deputy and will not be able to stand for election again before 2034.
This decision maintains the grip of the military and economic elites who align themselves with the king in the country, to the detriment of popular expression, according to the pro-democracy camp.
Prone to crises over the past 20 years, due to stubborn divisions between the establishment and new generations eager for change, Thailand is entering yet another period of uncertainty that is clouding its efforts to revive an economy that has been struggling since the pandemic.
More than a year after a historic victory in the legislative elections, Move Forward (MFP) is disappearing from the political landscape in its current form, but its members have promised to take up its progressive torch in view of the upcoming elections.
In recent weeks, the local press has been fuelling the rumour of the creation of a new party that would be joined by the more than 140 ex-MFP deputies still authorised to sit.
Pita Limjaroenrat and other leaders are scheduled to speak to the press after 6 p.m. at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok.
In front of the building, several dozen supporters dressed in orange, the party’s colour, gathered, according to an AFP journalist.
“I will continue to support Pita until death,” said Hua Jaidee, 69, a university cleaner, saying that in Thailand, “good people always end up being mistreated” by the establishment.
Siriporn Tanapitiporn, 53, cried as the decision was read. “But I have hope in the new generation, who can bring democracy back to our country,” said the street vendor.
The darling of the new generations, Pita Limjaroenrat has tried to breathe a breath of fresh air into a kingdom where political life is dominated by aging figures connected to powerful families or the army.
Telegenic, Harvard-educated, divorced, active on social media, the candidate gave his face to the disruptive program of Move Forward, which provided for a new Constitution, the reduction of military spending or the end of certain monopolies.
“33 dissolutions” in 20 years
The party was also the only one to dare to mention a reform of the lèse-majesté law, which was considered out of control and used by the government to repress dissidents.
This promise, seen as an attempt to overthrow the monarchy, led to Move Forward being sued in the case that led to its dissolution.
The accusations are extremely serious in Thailand, where King Maha Vajiralongkorn enjoys a quasi-divine status that places him above the political fray.
The party has always denied any illegal maneuvers. It has pointed out the interference of institutions controlled by its political opponents to the detriment of popular expression.
“In principle, the Constitutional Court should be used to defend democracy, not to make Thailand less democratic,” Pita Limjaroenrat said in an email to AFP before the decision was announced.
“In the last two decades, 33 parties have been dissolved, including four major ones that were elected by the people. We should not normalize this model or accept the use of a politicized court to destroy political parties,” he wrote.
The dissolution in 2020 of Future Forward, the forerunner of Move Forward, had given rise to major protests, extinguished by the pandemic and the repression of the authorities targeting the main figures of the movement, under, in many cases, the lèse-majesté law.
The text provides for between three and fifteen years in prison for any insult targeting the king or his family, a penalty considered among the most severe in the world for a law of this type.
Last year, the vote by MPs and senators that rejected Pita Limjaroenrat’s candidacy as prime minister, despite the support of a majority coalition in the Assembly, did not spark strong protests in the streets.
More than 14 million Thais, the first in more than a decade, voted to Move Forward in the parliamentary elections, to turn the page on a near-decade of military rule that resulted from a 2014 coup that has widened inequality and hampered growth.
Despite opposition blockades, Pita Limjaroenrat has remained largely ahead in popularity polls, according to the latest publications.