“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.
After winning a test that followers claimed was intended to end his political career, he was just reinstated as an MP in January 2024. He was being investigated by the establishment for holding stocks in a long-defunct advertising company.
In the May 2023 election, voters had voted in favor of Moving Forward, rejecting almost a century of army-backed law. In a nation that had at least a dozen effective dictatorships, that was no mean feat.
” The mood of the time has changed. And it was the correct timing”, Mr Pita had said, speaking at the group’s office in Bangkok, where it had won 32 of the state’s 33 tickets.
Despite the mandate, Thailand’s unelected senate blocked the charismatic politician from becoming prime minister
Yet, Mr. Pita and his revolutionary party erected a strong following among younger voters who were uneasy with military principle and eager to change.
He became a member of the Future Forward Party when he was elected to parliament in 2019.
Founded by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a businessman and ardent critic of the troops, Future Forward performed well in the 2019 vote, shaking up Indian politicians with its need 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.
After Future Forward was disbanded, thousands of young people in Thailand took to the streets in 2021 to demand fresh elections, constitutional amendments, and end to abuse of right activists and condition critics.
That desire for change and those very problems that underpinned it drove Walk Forward’s charm in next month’s election, with some of the opposition leaders from 2020 running as individuals.
Mr. Pita gained popularity with his party’s bold plans to reform the monarchy’s social sway and reform laws that were once called the “rising legend” of the Thai congress due to the critical speeches he delivered as an opposition MP.
He vowed to reform the law and pledged to free Thailand from what he termed a “lost generation” under a defense program.
In a battle meeting with Bloomberg last month, 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.
A powerful Thai family that was active in politics gave birth to Pita Limjaroenrat. His brother assisted previous ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, while his father had an agricultural ministry advisory role.
He was sent to school in New Zealand, which is when he developed an interest in elections.
There were three [TV ] channels at the time, and I was transported there in New Zealand. He told the Thai YouTube program Aim Hour in February 2023,” Either you watch American shampoo operas or you watch the conversations in parliament.”
Mr Pita graduated with a bachelor’s degree in finance in Bangkok’s Thammasat University, a master’s in public coverage from Harvard University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has been referred to as a “public policy school goods” in his own country.
He became a company executive after taking over the management of his late husband’s rice bran oil business and serving as the executive director of Grab Thailand, a ride-hailing business.
He was married to Chutima Teenpanart, a Thai actress-model, but the pair divorced in 2019. He is then a second father of seven-year-old Pipim, whom he brought to Walk Forward’s demonstrations.