Thailand court dissolves popular opposition party
BANGKOK — Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday ordered the popular opposition Future Forward Party dissolved, declaring that it violated election law by accepting a loan from its leader, charismatic 41-year-old Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.
The court also imposed a 10-year ban on the party’s executive members holding political office.
The ruling against the party comes just ahead of a no-confidence debate in Parliament set to begin Monday against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and several Cabinet members.
The opposition party has been an irritant to the government and the conservative forces in Thai society that back it because of its reformist positions and popularity. It placed a strong and surprising third in a general election last March and currently holds 76 seats in the House of Representatives.
It was founded in March 2018 as Thailand was heading toward an election after a period of military rule that began with a 2014 coup.
“The Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve the Future Forward Party and to ban its leadership from politics for a decade does great damage to Thailand and its institutions,” said Michael Montesano, coordinator of the Thailand Studies Program at the ISEAS-Yusof Isak Institute in Singapore. “Killing off a party that had channeled the vision and priorities of large numbers of young Thai voters sends a signal that those voters’ interests have no legitimacy in the electoral arena.”
Both the U.S. and the EU criticized the ruling as a setback for political pluralism, saying the more than 6 million people who voted for the party risk being disenfranchised.
There are 16 members of the party’s executive committee, 11 of whom are members of Parliament and lose their seats. The party’s remaining 65 lawmakers can take part in the upcoming no-confidence debate, but must find a new party within 60 days to keep their seats. It was not immediately clear how the 11 empty seats will be filled.