Thai Youth Activists Seek Political Representation to Challenge Monarchy.

More than a dozen activists from a student-led protest movement in Thailand are running as candidates in the upcoming election, bringing the issue of the role of monarchy in society into the open. Changing - though not abolishing - the strict laws known as lese majeste is part of the platform of the progressive Move Forward party. The youth movement has energized the progressive left while triggering the rise of a right-wing royalist party, Thai Pakdee, which is campaigning on toughening up the lese majeste law.