A Supreme Court official said 118 former CNRP officials would regain their political rights Wednesday and do not need to file any paperwork to make official their return to politics.
While some CNRP-linked minor parties are eyeing consolidation to challenge the ruling party in the upcoming elections, one such party is choosing to try its own luck rather than joining the path of others.
A new opposition party by ex-CNRP officials has taken another step toward becoming formally registered with the Interior Ministry after submitting 4,000 supporters’ thumbprints, as it eyes alliances with other minor parties ahead of next year’s commune elections.
With just over a year left on a political ban for opposition officials, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he would hand out “rehabilitation” pardons only if it “makes me pleased,” while saying he would stay in power until he “no longer wants to do it anymore.”
Former CNRP lawyer and board member Choung Choungy has applied for political rehabilitation — after being banned by the Supreme Court in 2017 — but an Interior Ministry spokesperson said his reentry into politics could be hampered by an unresolved court case.
Dissident Kung Raiya said he preferred to focus on business and family instead of speaking out and facing risk, a compromise faced by many opposition members after the CNRP’s dissolution.
A former vice president of the outlawed opposition CNRP has broken with the strident wing of the party in asking the government to be reinstated to politics this week, a course of action that a party co-founder has previously criticized as effective betrayal.
Ex-CNRP lawmaker Son Chhay, who requested his political rights be restored by the government last week, has always marched to his own beat, including challenging ruling party and opposition leaders alike, former colleagues and observers say.
Three more senior leaders of the outlawed opposition CNRP have asked the government’s permission to participate in politics again, leaving exiled CNRP deputy president Mu Sochua wondering why.
VOD is an independent media outlet producing radio programs and disseminating information to the public via the Internet.
© 2019 VOD. All Rights Reserved.
