BANGKOK (Reuters) -Thailand’s Constitutional Court said on Wednesday that it will hand down its verdict in a case seeking the dissolution of the opposition group Move Forward, the biggest party in parliament, on August 7.
The case stems from an election commission petition to disband Move Forward over its plan to amend a law that protects the powerful monarchy from criticism, a campaign the party dropped earlier this year on the order of the court. The party has denied wrongdoing.
“The court has considered that there is sufficient evidence to make a decision on the case,” it said in a statement.
The decision follows a separate ruling by the Constitutional Court in January that said Move Forward’s campaign to change the royal insult law was a hidden effort to undermine the monarchy.
The court ordered the party to stop the campaign, and did not call for any further punishment then.
“We are confident in our legal defence … and that our actions did not seek to undermine the system of governance,” Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon told reporters.
Move Forward was the surprise winner of last year’s election, riding on urban and youth support for its progressive platform that included a once unthinkable proposal to amend the lese majeste law, which carries penalties of up to 15 years in jail for each perceived insult of Thailand’s powerful crown.
In a country where reverence for the monarch has for decades been promoted as central to national identity, the law, under which at least 260 people have been prosecuted in the past few years, is seen by many royalists as sacrosanct.
Move Forward’s plan outraged conservatives who blocked the party’s formation of government.
Activists say that the law has been abused by conservative politicians to sideline and smear liberal opponents. Move Forward argues changing it would strengthen the constitutional monarchy and stop the law being misused.
The case against Move Forward also coincides with another complaint before the court seeking the removal of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin over a cabinet appointment of a lawyer who was previously jailed.
The two cases have heightened political uncertainty in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, where growth has lagging regional peers.
A decision to dissolve Move Forward’s predecessor, Future Forward, in 2020 triggered countrywide youth-led protests against the government.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Panu Wongcha-um; Editing by Martin Petty and John Mair)
