(Bangkok) Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday requested additional evidence in two highly politically sensitive cases, the first concerning the prime minister and the second the main opposition party at risk of dissolution.
The Court will re-examine these files next Tuesday.
The judges asked the electoral commission to provide new testimony to support its complaint against the pro-democracy movement Move Forward (MFP), accused of lèse-majesté, according to a press release from the body.
MFP won the 2023 legislative elections on the basis of a program of rupture with the monarchy and institutions, but without managing to form a government, due to opposition from the pro-army conservative bloc.
The party risks dissolution, and its leaders banishment from political life, for having promised during the campaign to reform the lèse-majesté law, one of the most severe in the world of this type.
Face of the renewal desired by the younger generations, Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of MFP during the victorious elections, denounced on Sunday “an attack on democracy”.
The dissolution by the Constitutional Court of Future Forward, which has since taken shape again under the name Move Forward, provoked large-scale protests in Bangkok for several months in 2020.
In the case involving Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, the Court “asked the parties concerned to identify witnesses and evidence.”
The head of government is the target of a request from 40 senators regarding the appointment of a minister who was imprisoned for contempt of court in 2008.
The minister concerned has since resigned, but Srettha Thavisin remains facing accusations of violating ethics rules, which could lead to her departure.
The Constitutional Court has been at the heart of several crises which have shaken Thailand in recent decades, a country renowned for its political instability, its coups d’état and its large demonstrations, sometimes punctuated by violence.
