GDP to Vote on Joining Forces With Candlelight

3 min read
The Grassroots Democratic Party’s rally on Phnom Penh’s Koh Dach island on May 21, 2022. (Ananth Baliga/VOD)
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The opposition Grassroots Democracy Party will soon decide whether it will join the Candlelight Party or stand on its own in the 2023 national election after discussions of a potential merger stalled, leaders said.

GDP spokesman Loek Sothea told VOD on Wednesday that the party has not yet decided its path forward after meeting with Candlelight leaders in October. The two parties’ leaders met three or four times to speak both formally and informally, he said.

In early October, the Khmer Will Party said it would contest the election with the Candlelight Party, working to register election candidates under the bigger partner in the coalition.

Next week on November 27, the GDP plans to hold a meeting of a “compromise committee” that will consider the same possibility.

“On that day, there will be a discussion and we could have an internal vote to choose which option or show which stance,” Sothea said.

In previous talks with Candlelight, according to Sothea, the GDP raised three options: merging to be one party, having GDP work on behalf of Candlelight but not merge, or dividing by region and encouraging people to vote in a single bloc. 

However, the two did not come to any final agreement. Candlelight leaders would prefer the GDP to come under the “umbrella” of the Candlelight Party like the Khmer Will Party but not officially merge as one, explaining that the 2012 merger of the Human Rights Party and the Sam Rainsy Party into the CNRP was “a bad experience for them,” Sothea said. 

But with hopeful strongholds such as Phnom Penh, Kandal, Takeo and Siem Reap under its belt, GDP prefers to divide the country regionally. Parties would then pick one opposition party most likely to win each region and encourage their supporters to vote for it.

“Dividing by region will first allow votes to come together collectively,” he said. “Second, it reduces the expense of each party and third, increases the number of [opposition] voices in the National Assembly.”

Teav Vannol, the president of the Candlelight Party, told VOD that there had been informal discussions with GDP once or twice, but that Candlelight would not agree to dividing the country by region because it has local chapters in all 25 provinces.

“We can’t participate with the GDP this way,” Vannol said. “The Candlelight Party can’t take the risk not to stand and let the GDP stand. We are willing to put our representatives for all 25 provincial capitals and provinces.”

Either way, the leaders of both parties agreed to a minimum level of cooperation of not attacking one another through bad language to gain favor or support from other parties, Sothea said. The parties are also in the process of creating a shared code of conduct that would also apply to the Cambodia Reform Party and the Khmer Will Party.

“We want to create a spirit of unity in our society between the parties as well as between our supporters,” Sothea said.

Candlelight will go forward in preparing for the upcoming election by strengthening structures in each province and registering voters, Vannol said, regardless of the Khmer Will Party’s decision next week.

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