I’d Be Thailand’s Leader if the System Weren’t Rigged

An anti-government protest in Bangkok in June | Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters

In an article by The New York Times, Pita Limjaroenrat provides an overview of Thai electoral politics and explains why he was blocked from forming a government and banned from politics for 10 years despite having led Thailand’s Move Forward Party to victory in 2023.

Two years ago, I walked into the Thai Parliament, ready to be chosen as the new prime minister. My party, Move Forward, had been handed a victory by millions of Thais who voted resoundingly to break the grip of a corrupt, anti-democratic political old guard.

Yet in Thai politics, nothing is ever certain.

The country’s power brokers soon conspired to block Move Forward from forming a government. Trumped-up lawsuits followed, and last year the Constitutional Court disbanded the party and barred me from politics for 10 years.

Since then, Thailand has cycled through prime ministers with dizzying speed, driven by this same game of political roulette. Last week, Parliament chose yet another — Anutin Charnvirakul, a conservative whose party managed to place only a distant third in the 2023 elections.