Thailand's Constitutional Court has ruled to dissolve the opposition Move Forward Party (MFP), over its campaign to amend a royal insults law that protects the monarchy from criticism.
The court also ordered the party's 11 current and former executives be banned from political office for 10 years, including former leader Pita Limjaroenrat.
The progressive political party won the most seats at the last election in 2023, but was blocked from forming a government last year by conservative forces in the military-appointed Senate.
However, it remains the biggest force in parliament with an agenda that includes military reform and undoing big business monopolies.
In January, the same court found the party's campaign to amend a law protecting the monarchy from criticism risked undermining Thailand's system of governance with the king as head of state.
Move Forward's anti-establishment agenda won huge support among voters but it clashed with Thailand's powerful nexus of old money families, conservatives and the military, to which reforming the lese majeste law is a step too far in a country where royalists regard the monarchy as sacrosanct.
The MFP denies wrongdoing and was ordered to drop its campaign on the royal insults law.
It argued the election commission's complaint did not follow proper procedures.
MFP leader Chaithawat Tulathon said the court's ruling set a dangerous precedent for the way the country's constitution is interpreted.
Tulathon said the party's MPs would form a new political party this week.
Deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul said the new vehicle, which would be the biggest party in parliament, would take on the same core ideology and not neglect its promises to the electorate.
"We will not abandon our dream and our mission and duty that was tasked to us," she said.
"As long as the people are alongside us and support us to change this country, we will continue forward."
In a strongly worded statement, the US State Department said that as a close ally with enduring ties, it urged Thailand to protect democracy and freedom of association and expression.
"The Constitutional Court's decision also jeopardises Thailand's democratic progress and runs counter to the aspirations of the Thai people for a strong, democratic future," spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Adam Simpson, a senior lecturer in International Studies at the University of South Australia, said the court's decision "illustrates the abysmal state of democracy in Thailand and the perpetuation of the concentration of power in the monarchy-military complex".
"While in recent years there has been some improvement in personal freedoms — notably the legalisation of same sex marriage and cannabis — there is a long way to go to establish and consolidate basic political freedoms within a multi-party democracy, such as freedom of speech," Dr Simpson said.
Thailand, South-East Asia's second-biggest economy, has been locked in a two-decade cycle of coups, judicial interventions and dissolutions that have toppled elected governments and major parties, at times leading to violent street demonstrations.
There are expectations that the party's surviving 143 legislators will keep their seats and reorganise under a new party that could become even more popular.
Dissolution could reinvigorate support base
Aim Sinpeng, associate professor in politics at the University of Sydney, said the leadership of the Move Forward Party had been expecting the dissolution.
"It became evident when they became the opposition despite winning the election, that the status quo would do whatever in their power to remove the MFP from power," she said.
"A number of politicians from the party have said to me that they have prepared to the point where they have Move Forward version two, three, four, and they even try to come up with names."
Protests ensued in 2020 after Move Forward's predecessor, Future Forward, was disbanded over a campaign funding violation, with anti-government protests leading to some taboo-breaking calls to reform the monarchy, which landed several activists in jail.
Dr Sinpeng said the dissolution had the potential to reinvigorate the party's support base.
"It will increase the grievances. A real question mark is how much discontent this will generate," she said.
"Because one of the biggest reasons why the Move Forward Party won the last election was all of the discontent stemming from the Future Forward Party dissolution."
Dr Sinpeng said that discontent turned into a three-year youth-led movement during the Covid-19 pandemic that fuelled votes for MFP.
"So can a new party turn that into votes at the next election?" she asks.
That's three-and-a-half years away, which is a long time to be upset."
Dissolution comes at time of peak political criticism
Dr Sinpeng said that the likely reorganisation of the MFP could take it into an even more reformist direction.
"One of the biggest reasons why the Future Forward Party wasn't as mainstream was because people thought they were quite disruptive and radical," she said.
"And then instead of trying to appeal to the centre and become less extreme, they became more extreme, then they won the election.
"They became much more vocal about reforming the monarchy. They have been associated with a number of anti-monarchy groups. They were very, very against the military.
"They have learned that, having become more radical, it has actually made them more electable, which is strange."
Dr Sinpeng said voters' awareness of the political and constitutional system had increased in recent years, with Thai citizens more critical of politics than they have ever been.
Former MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat, who is among 11 party executives who face bans from politics for a decade, last month told Reuters it was time to "stop this vicious cycle".
"I want to prove to the establishment, and also to the world, that dissolving parties is futile," he added.
The verdict also comes as cracks appear in an uneasy truce between the royalist establishment and another longtime rival, the populist ruling party, Pheu Thai.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin faces possible dismissal by the same court next week over a cabinet appointment.
He denies wrongdoing.
ABC/wires
