Thailand’s Constitutional Court has dissolved the country’s largest opposition party and official winner of the 2023 general election, Move Forward. The same court has now dismissed Thailand’s prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, in an ethics case for appointing a cabinet minister who was once jailed.
The dissolution of Move Forward was widely expected. Thailand’s conservative royalist-military establishment has dominated the country’s politics for more than six decades. And Move Forward’s progressive political agenda had been a thorn in the establishment’s side since 2018, when the party’s predecessor, Future Forward, entered politics.
Future Forward was dissolved by the constitutional court in February 2020, less than a year after it placed third in the 2019 general election. The disbanding of the party triggered a wave of unprecedented pro-democracy protests throughout 2020 and 2021.
