The Move Forward Party (MFP) expects the Constitutional Court will approve a new request to extend the deadline for submitting its defence in the party dissolution case by another 15 days, party leader Chaithawat Tulathon said on Wednesday.
The original deadline was April 18 but the party requested a 30-day extension. The court approved only 15 days — until May 3 — which Move Forward says is insufficient to gather all the evidence it needs.
The court on April 3 accepted a petition from the Election Commission seeking the dissolution of Move Forward because of its stated policy to amend the contentious royal defamation law, or Section 112 of the Criminal Code.
Under the Political Parties Act, the poll body is empowered to propose dissolution of a party if it has evidence of an act deemed hostile to the democratic regime with the King as head of state.
The EC was acting in response to a Jan 31 Constitutional Court ruling that found the Move Forward policy constituted an attempt to undermine the constitutional monarchy. It ordered the party to cease all public advocacy for changes to the lese-majeste law.
“Since this case will likely have a huge impact on the Move Forward Party, the party needs to be extra careful in writing its defence and gathering evidence and information to support it,” Mr Chaithawat said on Wednesday.
In a case that could lead to the serious penalty of party dissolution, the affected party should be given sufficient time to prepare its defence, to ensure justice, he said.
Move Forward won the most votes and the most seats in the 2023 election but was unable to form a government because it could not win the support of the unelected Senate. It now leads the opposition to the Pheu Thai-led coalition government.
Discussing the possibility of a number of MPs defecting to other parties for fear Move Forward might be dissolved, Mr Chaithawat said he believes the number will be lower than in 2020 when its predecessor Future Forward was dissolved by the court.
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