Thailand: heading for a 'political inferno'?

Hopes of change fading as establishment moves to dismantle reformist Move Forward party

Government officials ranged in front of a portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok during celebrations to mark his 72nd birthday in July
Government officials ranged in front of a portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn outside the Grand Palace in Bangkok during celebrations to mark his 72nd birthday in July
(Image credit: Chanakarn Laosarakham / AFP / Getty Images)

When Thailand's opposition Move Forward Party triumphed in last year's elections, it looked like a "watershed" moment for the country, said Thitinan Pongsudhirak in Nikkei Asia (Tokyo). The party had promised to reform the powerful monarchy, and looked ready to end years of stultifying rule by the generals who'd taken power in a 2014 coup.

It wasn't to be. Move Forward was blocked from forming a government by the senate, the members of which had been appointed by the junta. Last week, things got even worse when Thailand's constitutional court ordered the party dissolved and banned its leaders from politics for a decade, said Pravit Rojanaphruk on Khaosod (Bangkok). The decision is a hammer blow for the 14 million people who voted for change last year, and makes a mockery of the idea that this nation of 71.8 million is a proper democracy.

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