“Cambodia’s National Election: Challenges Faced by Opposition Parties to Compete Against the Ruling Party”

2023-05-09 16:28:00

Cambodia’s National Election Commission announced Monday that 20 political parties have registered for the July general election. But out of those, 9 parties have yet to be approved. which includes the Saengthian Party who is the only credible challenger to the Cambodian People’s Party. ruling party

About 9.7 million Cambodians have registered to vote in the July 23 election to elect 125 members of the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party are easily expected to win a large number of votes. with the advantages of both holding positions dominance in terms of management, personnel, finance and media influence.

The Cambodian People’s Party has been in power for decades. and controls the government at almost every level. Hun Sen, 70, has held the country’s leadership for 38 years. his eldest son was widely expected to replace his father as Prime Minister following the election.

The Sangthian-led opposition has fewer financial resources and is subject to constant threats, including prosecution. Most of the prominent opposition members had to flee to avoid imprisonment for various charges. which they say is fake and unfair

The Sangthian Party is the unofficial successor of the Cambodia National Rescue Party. It poses a serious challenge to Hun Sen’s party ahead of the 2018 election, but it was dissolved just months before the polls following a court ruling that it said it illegally planned to overthrow the government.

The court is believed to be under the influence of the Hun Sen government. And the dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party gave the ruling party all the seats in parliament.

However, in the local elections last June The Cambodian People’s Party got 74.3% of the vote and the Sangthian Party regarding 22.3%.

Rong Chun, vice-president of Sangthian Party He told reporters on Sunday while registering with the National Election Commission that Many party members were intimidated, harassed and even physically assaulted. But his party did not publicly disclose those events. Some government officials who were members of the Sangthian Party were also fired from their jobs.

Rong Chun has appealed to authorities for fair treatment of all political parties. and said he hoped for peace before the election. where people can demonstrate their loyalty and support their own party without fear

The party said before the registration that the Election Commission had requested documents the party was unable to provide. Even those documents were not required for last year’s local elections.

The committee requested the original party registration document issued by the Ministry of Interior. But Sangthian said the documents were recovered in a 2017 police raid of the CNRP headquarters.

If Sangthian is not allowed to participate in the July elections The ruling party competes with polarized political groups. or a small and obscure political party that has never had a national presence before.

by law Political parties have seven days to provide the Election Commission with the missing information. If the operation is unsuccessful Their registration will be denied. They can then appeal to the Constitutional Court.

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