Reformist Thai party faces dissolution bids
The progressive party that won the most seats in Thailand’s last election faced two possible dissolution bids on Thursday, after losing a court case over its bid to reform the kingdom’s tough royal insult laws.
Nine Constitutional Court judges ruled Wednesday that the Move Forward Party’s (MFP) campaign pledge to loosen lesemajeste legislation amounted to an attempt to overthrow the monarchy.
An activist on Thursday lodged a formal request with the Election Commission of Thailand, the country’s top polling body, asking for MFP to be dissolved.
“My petition asks the election commission... to rule on whether the Move Forward Party should be disbanded, and its executives lose their political rights,” petitioner Ruangkrai Leekitwattana told reporters.
Ruangkrai asked the court to dissolve MFP twice last year, but both times the petition was rejected.
A second petition was also presented on Thursday by royalist lawyer Theerayut Suwankesorn.
“The Court ruled that Pita and the MFP’s actions are against the Constitutional Monarchy,” he told reporters, calling on the EC to seek the dissolution of the party.
MFP upended Thailand’s political order in May’s election, finishing first after a campaign promising to reform the kingdom’s strict lese-majeste laws.
The court on Wednesday unanimously ordered the party to stop all efforts to reform the laws against insulting or defaming King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Thailand has a history of political parties being wound up by judicial intervention, including MFP’s forerunner the Future Forward Party, which was dissolved in 2020 over finance issues.
The lese-majeste law is intended to protect the king -- a revered, semi-divine figure in Thai society -- from insult, and those breaking it can face up to 15 years in jail per offence.
Critics say the legislation has been interpreted broadly in recent years, effectively shielding the royal family from any kind of criticism or mockery.
Reform of the lese-majeste law, known in Thailand as 112 after the relevant section of the criminal code, was a major theme of 2020 pro-democracy demonstrations, which featured unprecedented public criticism of the royal family.