We join voices around the world in condemning the Constitutional Court’s decision to dissolve the country’s opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) on Wednesday.

While it was not unexpected, we share the pain and frustration of our Thai sisters and brothers in learning of the judicial panel’s unanimous vote to disband the MFP and ban all members of its executive board, including former leader Pita Limjaroenrat, from the nation’s political arena for 10 years.

Pita led the reformist party to a shocking win in Thailand’s general election last year, although it fell short of clinching the majority. The party campaigned on a platform that included a proposal to amend the royal defamation law, which the political establishment viewed as a threat to the status quo.

Despite its massive victory at the polls, conservative forces in the military-dominated Thai senate blocked Pita’s bid to become prime minister and form a government, and a coalition of parties linked to the military instead took office under Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

Charges under the lèse-majesté law are extremely serious in the country, where King Maha Vajiralongkorn enjoys a quasi-divine status that places him above politics.

We have seen this before. Four years ago, Thailand’s Constitutional Court disbanded the MFP’s predecessor, the Future Forward Party, and also banned that progressive party’s leader from politics for a decade over allegations of an illegal campaign loan.

That decision ignited youth-led protests that called for sweeping democratic reforms, including changes to the lèse-majesté law.

The MFP’s outstanding, unprecedented performance in the 2023 election, garnering 14 million votes to win 147 out of 500 seats in the lower house, demonstrated the country’s maturing democracy. It also reflected the people’s waning faith in the military generals that justified the use of all means to satisfy their greed for power, hiding behind the monarchy over decades to stay in power.

Following Wednesday’s ruling, the MFP’s 147 members of parliament have just 60 days to join a different political party to retain their seats.

While the court's decision is another blow to Thailand's democracy, we believe that the democracy movement will prevail. We call on all progressive politicians, activists and people in Thailand to keep their heads up and carry on their struggle.

To the Thai people and our other Southeast Asian brethren, we echo Pita’s words: Our wish to live secure lives, free from fear and want, will not be determined by a court verdict.

As the political turmoil in Bangladesh has revealed, repressive regimes are not immovable objects, and progress is an unstoppable force.