Thailand's main opposition leader banned from politics for ten years

Photo: Lillian Suwanrumpha Agence France-Presse Pita Limjaroenrat leaves the Constitutional Court after the ruling banning him from political life for 10 years.

Thanaporn Promyamyai – Agence France-Presse and Alexis Hontang – Agence France-Presse in Bangkok

Published at 3:23 p.m.

• Asia

Thai courts 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.

Thailand's main opposition party has promised that its pro-democracy commitment will continue in a new form, after its dissolution and the 10-year ban of its leading figure, Pita Limjaroenrat, were handed down by the courts on Wednesday.

Constitutional Court judges voted unanimously to dissolve Move Forward (MFP), accused of seeking to destabilize the monarchy.

This decision, criticized by human rights groups, opens a new cycle of uncertainty in a divided kingdom, against a backdrop of strengthening economic and military elites who defend the interests of the monarchy.

“Let's be sad today, for one day, but let's move forward tomorrow, and release our frustration in the next ballot we cast,” Pita Limjaroenrat said at a press conference in Bangkok.

“We will never leave you,” insisted the charismatic leader, surrounded on stage by several MFP members dressed in black.

The winner of the 2023 elections loses his mandate as a member of parliament and the right to run until 2034, the judges ruled, who sentenced 10 other party officials, including current secretary general Chaithawat Tulathon, in the same way.

Members of the dissolved party have vowed to take up the torch, in a new structure that will be unveiled Friday, according to an official. A video posted on MFP’s X account minutes after the dissolution was announced touted the movement’s “indestructible” ideas and the “beginning of a new journey.”

“Pita until death”

Dozens of supporters dressed in orange, the MFP’s color, gathered outside the party’s headquarters in Bangkok, an AFP journalist noted.

“I will continue to support Pita until death,” said Hua Jaidee, 69, a university cleaner who believes that in Thailand, “good people always end up being mistreated” by the establishment.

A 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 military.

Telegenic, Harvard graduate, divorced, active on social networks, the candidate gave his face to the program of rupture of Move Forward, which planned a new Constitution, the reduction of military spending and the end of certain monopolies.

The party was also the only one to dare to mention a reform of the law of lèse-majesté, considered out of control and instrumentalized by the power to repress the dissidents.

This promise, assimilated to an attempt to want to overthrow the monarchy, earned Move Forward the prosecutions which led to its dissolution.

These accusations are extremely serious in Thailand, where King Maha Vajiralongkorn enjoys a status of quasi-divinity which places him above the political fray. Any insult targeting the monarch or his family can result in up to 15 years in prison.

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.

“Indefensible decision”

The dissolution of Move Forward is “not a surprise” in a system where “there are only powers, and no counter-powers”, according to political scientist Napisa Waitoolkiat.

Over the past 20 years, judges have dissolved about 30 political parties, according to a count by MFP.

The US State Department said it was “deeply concerned” by the conviction, which “runs counter to the aspirations of the Thai people for a strong and democratic future.”

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has deplored a “setback for pluralism and democracy in Thailand.”

The judges made “an indefensible decision that reveals the authorities’ complete disregard for Thailand’s international human rights obligations,” reacted Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s executive director in charge of regional human rights impact, in a press release.

The ban in 2020 of Future Forward, the predecessor of Move Forward, had given rise to major protests, extinguished by the pandemic and the authorities’ repression targeting the movement’s main figures, under, in many cases, the lèse-majesté law.

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 – an unprecedented result in more than 10 years – voted for Move Forward in the legislative elections, to turn the page on a near-decade of domination by the military that emerged from a putsch in 2014, which has widened inequality and hampered growth.

Pita Limjaroenrat remains well ahead in popularity polls.