Thai Constitutional Court dissolves election-winning Move Forward Party

Thailand’s top court also banned former leader Pita Limjaroenrat and several others from politics for 10 years.

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has ordered the dissolution of the progressive, election-winning Move Forward Party (MFP), saying it violated the constitution when it pledged to amend the country’s lese-majeste law outlawing criticism of the royal family.

In its unanimous decision on Wednesday, the court in Bangkok also banned the party’s executive board, which includes its former leader Pita Limjaroenrat and current chief Chaithawat Tulathon, for 10 years.

MFP won the most seats in the 2023 general election, as young and urban voters swung behind its agenda for reform including of the strict royal defamation law, which rights groups say has been misused to stifle pro-democracy groups.

But Pita’s bid to become prime minister was blocked by conservative forces in the then military-appointed Senate. His political career was further shaken earlier this year when the Election Commission asked the country’s top court to dissolve MFP.

The decision comes six months after the same court ordered MFP to drop its plan to reform the law on royal insults, ruling it was unconstitutional and risked undermining the country’s system of governance with the king as head of state.