Court Forces Thailand’s Most Popular Party to Disband
Move Forward, a reformist party that won last year’s general elections in Thailand, has been disbanded by the country’s Constitutional Court, which also barred nearly a dozen party leaders from politics for a decade. The court ruled that Move Forward’s proposals to weaken Thailand’s lese majeste laws, which prohibit criticism of the monarchy, amount to an attempt to overthrow the monarchy. (New York Times)
Our Take
While certainly a shake-up for Thai politics, this ruling is also just the latest example of Thailand’s powerful conservative establishment—an informal coalition of royalists, the military brass and other elites—targeting a party that threatens its power. But for much of the past two decades, the biggest threat was not Move Forward, but rather Pheu Thai, a populist vehicle for the Shinawatra family, in particular former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
Over the past two decades, Shinawatra, successive iterations of his party and other members of his political dynasty have been repeatedly targeted by the conservative establishment, the Constitutional Court and multiple coups. In 2014, during Pheu Thai’s previous stint in power, the military resorted to a coup, deposing Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck, and ushering in a military government, while subsequently drafting a new constitution that reserves considerable power for the conservative establishment in the form of an appointed Senate.
After last year’s elections, however, Move Forward posed a threat not only to the conservative establishment, but also to the Shinawatra family’s political positioning as the primary challenger to that establishment. Fueled by support from young people and the pro-democracy movement that emerged in Thailand after the 2014 coup, Move Forward presented itself as an alternative reformist party to Pheu Thai, a strategy that saw it win the most seats in the lower house of the legislature last year.
The military-controlled Senate blocked Move Forward from gaining power, however, and instead coopted Pheu Thai, which formed a coalition government with parties aligned with the conservative establishment. Move Forward, meanwhile, was targeted by the Constitutional Court for its willingness to propose reforms to the lese majeste laws, which remain the third rail of Thai politics despite longstanding popular grievances with the draconian rules.
But dissolving Move Forward is unlikely to eradicate the growing discontent that has now been on display in Thailand for at least half a decade, especially considering that Move Forward is itself the successor to an upstart reformist party that was similarly disbanded in 2020. If anything, the court’s decision will only make Thai politics more volatile, while increasing calls for change.