Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of Thailand’s Move Forward party, has gained a rockstar following as the country prepares for a general election. The 42-year-old is vying to be the country’s next prime minister after the Future Forward party was dissolved in 2019 and its most senior executives banned from politics for a decade.
Move Forward won over six million votes and 81 seats at the last election, and its popularity has been growing since. The party aims to demilitarise, decentralise and de-monopolise Thailand, and also wants to reform the royal defamation law, end mandatory military conscription and hold a referendum to prevent future military dictatorships.
Limjaroenrat is a Harvard-educated businessman who transitioned to politics after serving as
an executive director of ride-share service Grab. He is the nephew of Padung Limjaroenrat, a close aide of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and his late father was an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture.
