Pita Limjaroenrat: The popular Thai leader banned from politics

“Today is a new day, and hopefully it is full of bright sunshine and hope,” 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat had told a room packed with reporters and flashing cameras last year, hours after his Move Forward party swept to a surprising and stunning victory at Thailand’s elections last year.

But a year on, his politcial career was cut short. Thailand’s constitutional court banned him from politics for 10 years on Wednesday, and ordered the dissolution of his party.

He was reinstated as MP only in January 2024, after wininng a trial supporters say was aimed at ending his political career. The establishment had sought to disqualify him from parliament for owning shares in a long-defunct media company.

Voters had handed more seats and votes to Move Forward than any other party in the May 2023 poll, rejecting nearly a decade of army-backed rule. That was no mean achievement in a country that had experienced at least a dozen successful coups.

“The sentiment of the era has changed. And it was the right timing,” Mr Pita had said, speaking at the party’s headquarters in Bangkok, where it had won 32 of the city’s 33 seats.

Despite the mandate, Thailand’s unelected senate blocked the charismatic politician from becoming prime minister

Still, Mr Pita and his reformist party built a strong following among young voters disillusioned by years of military rule and hungry for change.

He started his political career when he was elected to parliament in 2019 as a member of the Future Forward Party.

Founded by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a billionaire and staunch critic of the army, Future Forward performed well in the 2019 election, shaking up Thai politics with its demand for reform.

But the party was forced to disband the following year after contentious allegations that its leaders said were politically motivated. And Mr Thanathorn was disqualified as an MP. Move Forward was formed soon after as its successor and named Mr Pita its new leader.

Thousands of young people took to the streets in Thailand in 2021 after Future Forward was dissolved, demanding amendments to the constitution, a new election and an end to the harassment of rights activists and state critics.

That desire for change and those very issues that underpinned it drove Move Forward’s appeal in last year’s election, with some of the protest leaders from 2020 running as candidates.

Mr Pita – once called a “rising star” of the Thai parliament because of the critical speeches he made as an opposition MP – also gained popularity with his party’s bold promises to break the military’s political influence and reform laws relating to the monarchy.

He wanted= to rewrite the constitution and pledged to bring Thailand out of what he called a “lost decade” under a military regime.

In a campaign interview with Bloomberg last year, Mr Pita said his priorities for Thailand were to “demilitarise, demonopolise and decentralise”.

In pushing for an end to Thailand’s lèse-majesté laws and taking on the military’s influence, Mr Pita pit himself against Thailand’s monarchy and military-aligned elite.