(Bloomberg) -- Members of a disbanded Thai opposition group that won the most seats in last year’s election reemerged as the People’s Party, picking a 37-year-old lawmaker as leader in a challenge to the Southeast Asian nation’s conservative royalist establishment.
Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a tech entrepreneur-turned parliamentarian, said the party’s “mission from now on is to create a government of change in 2027.” The group will work to win enough seats in the next election to form a government on its own, he said.
The new party was unveiled in Bangkok on Friday after Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved Move Forward on Wednesday for violating election rules by pushing for changes to the controversial lese majeste law, which shields the Thai royal family from criticism.
Pita Limjaroenrat, the party’s popular prime ministerial candidate, was among 11 executives barred from politics for 10 years. The court order meant that about 140 lawmakers of the party had to join a new party within 60 days.
Move Forward shook Thai politics by winning the most parliamentary seats in election in May last year on support from the largely young and urban voters who had grown frustrated with nearly a decade of military-backed administrations. The party’s promise to spread economic activity beyond the capital city Bangkok, dismantle business monopolies and reduce the influence of elites had resonated with its supporters.
But its unprecedented bid to amend the royal insult law, also known as as Article 112 of the Thai penal code, eventually led to its dissolution with the court ruling it amounted to an attempt to overthrow the kingdom’s constitutional monarchy. The policy was also cited by the conservative, pro-royalist establishment to block Pita’s bid to become prime minister.
On Friday, Natthaphong said the party will continue the reformist agenda of Move Forward, including a push for changes to the royal insult law. But Parit Wacharasindhu, a lawmaker, said the party will need to decide on the best course forward and parliamentary mechanism remained an option as the court did not entirely rule out that space.
“The most sacred and enduring institution in a democratic political system is the people, who hold the highest power in governing the country,” the party said in a post on Facebook while announcing its name and new logo.
The new party name resembles Khana Ratsadon, a political group that staged the Siamese Revolution in 1932 to end absolute monarchy in Thailand. The country has since been a constitutional monarchy.
The party’s logo of an inverted pyramid represents the elevation of people over the rulers, it said, adding it also reflected equality and modernity.
Before the dissolution, Move Forward was the most popular in the country, with Pita being the top choice as a prime ministerial candidate, according to a June survey by the National Institute of Development Administration.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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