Thailand: electoral commission calls for dissolution of main opposition party
Thailand's electoral commission announced on Tuesday (March 12) that it would ask the kingdom's Constitutional Court to dissolve the progressive opposition Move Forward Party (MFP), which won most seats in Parliament in May's elections. 2023.
Pita Limjaroenrat, the leading figure of the Thai Move Forward party, at a press conference, January 31, 2024. AP - Sakchai Lalit
By: RFI with AFP
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The commission indicated in a press release that it had decided “
unanimously
” to request this dissolution, due to the campaign promise made by the party to relax the very severe legislation on lèse-majesté.
The MFP upended Thailand's political order in May's legislative elections.
The breakthrough of this reformist formation has awakened old divisions in Thailand, where power remains in the hands of the economic and military elites attached to the king, despite the aspiration for change expressed at the ballot box by the new generations.
The party embodied by
Pita Limjaroenrat
, a charismatic and telegenic personality who stands out on the Thai political scene, is the only one in the country to openly discuss a reform of
the lèse-majesté law
.
Motley coalition
But his opponents, pretexting the danger of
Move Forward
for the monarchy, managed to form a heterogeneous coalition to exclude him from power.
Now Move Forward is threatened with dissolution.
In late January, the kingdom's Constitutional Court ruled that his campaign promise amounted to an attempt to overthrow the monarchy.
The judges did not then issue an explicit sanction, but two requests were filed with the Electoral Commission to request the dissolution of the party.
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