BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday expelled from politics the country’s most popular opposition politician, Pita Limjaroenrat, and 10 other leaders of his Move Forward Party (MFP) for repeatedly demanding the king’s powerful legal protection against libel be weakened and “reformed.”
Mr. Pita, whose upstart party finished first in parliamentary elections last year but was blocked from forming a government, is widely seen as a pro-U.S. force in Thai politics and a voice for younger voters who sought to challenge a long period of military-dominated government.
The move drew an unusually sharp rebuke from the Biden administration, which has cultivated Bangkok in a rivalry with China for friends, influence and markets in Southeast Asia, but expressed “deep concern” over the ruling.
“This decision disenfranchises the more than 14 million Thais who voted for the Move Forward Party in the May 2023 election and raises questions about their representation within Thailand’s electoral system,” State Department spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement after the expulsion was announced. “The Constitutional Court’s decision also jeopardizes Thailand’s democratic progress and runs counter to the aspirations of the Thai people for a strong, democratic future.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, Maryland Democrat, also criticized the decision, saying it will force lawmakers to “evaluate how recent developments in Thailand will impact the U.S.-Thailand bilateral partnership.”
The nine judges of Thailand’s Constitutional Court, wrapped in black cloaks with bright red bibs, issued the ruling in front of portraits on the courtroom’s wall portraying King Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida. Mr. Pita, wearing a blue suit with a white medical facemask covering his mouth, sat rigidly in the courtroom alongside other MFP politicians, staring at the judges.
Thailand enforces the toughest lese majeste law in the world, which makes it illegal to “defame, insult, or threaten members of the royal family.”
Several high-profile anti-monarchy protest leaders and dozens of others are currently in prison after being convicted for violating the law during the past two decades.
In a loud campaign, Mr. Pita and his MFP had demanded that the punishments meted out under the law — which include multiple 15-year prison sentences for each infraction — be lessened. But that activism worried many of the party’s own supporters who cautioned that Mr. Pita’s priorities should instead have focused on the troubled economy and other issues instead of repeatedly challenging the monarchy’s legal protection.
Mr. Pita’s supporters claim Thailand’s hierarchy of military, royalists, old-money conservatives and some big business interests are blocking him because he threatens their financial and political control.
The political downfall for Mr. Pita, a 42-year-old progressive with a business background and an MBA from MIT, is a dramatic reversal from his impressive peak.
After coming in first in the 2023 multi-party elections, which were widely seen as a referendum on a decade of military rule, he boldly but prematurely presented himself as the next prime minister, vowing to slash the military’s political and commercial powers and end the draft. He also talked of limiting the influence of Thailand’s large, family-run monopolistic corporations and allowing more diversification for smaller competitors.
But his path to power was blocked by the military-dominated Senate, which rejected his efforts to form a coalition government. and name a prime minister.
The Election Commission filed a petition against the party in January, alleging that its campaign to amend the lese majeste laws amounted to an attempt to overthrow the nation’s constitutional monarchy. Move Forward has insisted that it wants to keep the monarchy above politics and not allow it to be exploited as a political tool.
The court said the party’s dissolution will allow the MFP’s more than 140 other elected lawmakers to keep their parliamentary seats if they join other parties or form a new one.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, head of the Pheu Thai Party (PTP) which scored second place in last year’s election, has said he opposes any changes to the laws protecting the monarchy
“Pheu Thai has made it clear it will not amend or scrap the law,” Mr. Srettha said last summer, calling the campaign a distraction from the “bread-and-butter issues affecting people’s daily lives.”
Mr. Pita told reporters after the decision that party members will carry on “in a new vehicle” to be introduced Friday, although he will not be a part of it, the Associated Press reported.
“I have left my dent in the universe. And I’ll make sure that I pass the baton to the next-generation leaders,” he said.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Richard S. Ehrlich can be reached at rehrlich@washingtontimes.com.
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