Move Forward upbeat on growth in next poll despite dissolution threat
Pita Limjaroenrat, former leader of the opposition Move Forward Party, expressed confidence on Sunday that his party would grow larger in the next election despite an ongoing dissolution case against it.
Pita was speaking during a gathering of party supporters held at BITEC Bang Na.
Pita assured Move Forward supporters that the party would win at least 270 parliamentary seats in the next general election, or even as many as 300.
Pita led Move Forward to win the general election on May 14 last year. Although it emerged as the biggest party in terms of MPs, it could not form a coalition government and Pita could not become the prime minister because of strong opposition by 250 senators, who joined forces with MPs from former coalition partners of the previous government.
Pita later stepped down as Move Forward leader to defend himself in court on allegations that he was not qualified to stand in the election for holding shares in iTV Plc. After the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Pita and allowed him to retain his House seat, he didn’t return to the helm of the party.
Pita said his party would continue to grow with six key policies:
- To push for quality and sustainable economic growth
- To catch up with a changing world
- To increase people’s quality of life
- To help rural people overcome poverty
- To carry out major reforms
- To develop Thai governance to become truly democratic.
Pita said the attempt to destroy Move Forward would never be successful.
“No matter what they do to our party, they won’t be able to destroy our spirit and soul,” Pita said.
He said that even if Move Forward is dissolved, “we party members can pick up a brick each to help build a new house together”.
He was referring to the pending dissolution case against Move Forward, which stemmed from Pita’s earlier campaigns to amend or reform Article 112 of the Criminal Code, which is known as the lese majeste law.
In January this year, the Constitutional Court ruled that such campaigns were unconstitutional as they were deemed efforts to overthrow the standing system with the King as the head of state.
The Election Office later cited the ruling as a cause for filing a petition with the Constitutional Court to seek dissolution of Move Forward and a political ban for life against Pita and Move Forward executives.
The Constitutional Court gave the Move Forward until June 2 to submit its written defence before the court would review the charges and issue a ruling.
