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Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled to dissolve the main opposition party, the Far East Party, which was also dissolved before.

2024-08-07

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On August 7, the Constitutional Court of Thailand ruled to dissolve the country's main opposition party, the Far East Party. The main reason for the ruling was that the Far East Party attempted to amend Article 112 of Thai law regarding insulting the monarchy.

This is the latest ruling of the Constitutional Court of Thailand on the Far East Party. According to CCTV News, the Far East Party and its leader Pita proposed a campaign policy to amend Article 112 of the Criminal Code during the 2023 general election. On January 31 this year, the Constitutional Court made a ruling on whether the policy platform was suspected of subverting the state power and ruled that the content of Pita and the Far East Party's campaign platform regarding amending Article 112 of the Criminal Code to reduce or exempt the sentence for contempt of the king was an act of subverting the state power, and the Far East Party must stop its efforts to implement the policy platform.

According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian on August 7, the Far East Party is one of the most popular political parties in Thailand, with its main supporters coming from the youth group. With the latest ruling made by the Constitutional Court on August 7, Far East Party executive committee members including Pita may also face a 10-year ban from participating in politics.

Pita previously said that the party has made plans for the formation of a successor party force and will continue to carry out extensive actions. He told supporters at a recent event: "Don't give in, don't lose hope, stay angry."

In fact, according to Reuters, the predecessor of the Future Forward Party, the Future Forward Party, was also disbanded. In 2020, the Future Forward Party was ordered to disband for "violating campaign finance regulations", and several leaders of the Future Forward Party were banned from politics for 10 years, which caused large-scale street protests at the time.

Jade Donavanik, a legal expert and former adviser to the 2017 constitution-drafting committee, said in an interview: "Many parties that were dissolved (in the past) found that it was not that important... If the Far East Party was dissolved, there might be a new party waiting for members outside the Far East Party executive committee to join."

Similarly, the Pheu Thai Party, to which the current Prime Minister Setthala belongs, also has several predecessor parties, including the People's Power Party, which was dissolved in 2008, and the Thai Rak Thai Party, which was dissolved in 2007. According to The Guardian, the Thai Constitutional Court will also make a ruling on a lawsuit filed by Prime Minister Setthala next week.