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Cambodia’s Constitutional Council rejected an appeal from the country’s main opposition party to be allowed to register for the upcoming parliamentary elections, a decision on Thursday that leaves the Candlelight Party without options and some observers questioning whether the July vote will have much credibility.

 

The National Election Committee’s decision earlier this month to block the Candlelight Party from appearing on the ballot was deemed correct and based on the law, council spokesman Prum Vicheat Akara told reporters.

 

The ruling means Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won’t have any major challengers on the ballot on July 23.

 

The decision is a setback for democracy in Cambodia and will disenfranchise thousands of people who have recently become supporters of the Candlelight Party, according to Rong Chhun, the party’s vice president.

 

The French foreign ministry echoed that, saying it was “a troubling signal that undermines the democratic nature of the vote.” 

 

“France calls on the appropriate authorities to take the necessary measures to allow the Candlelight Party to participate in this important democratic exercise,” it said in a statement.

 

The NEC said on May 15 that it wouldn’t accept a statement from the Interior Ministry confirming the party’s registration in 1998. The committee said it required the original certificate issued by the ministry, which was lost in 2017 when the offices of a previous opposition party were raided by government agents.

 

Candlelight Party members have cried foul because the party was allowed to compete in last year’s local commune elections. 

 

Public protest promised

 

Party officials had hoped the Constitutional Council, a judicial body that examines election disputes, might overturn the NEC’s ruling.

 

But the Constitutional Council – just like the NEC – was simply acting according to Hun Sen’s wishes, Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok said. 

 

“Hun Sen can’t find any solutions so he already threatened foreign diplomats,” he said. “He is afraid of a demonstration after the election results. He is afraid of the Candlelight Party and other social injustice issues.”

 

The Candlelight Party has two choices, said Australia-based social development researcher Seng Sary. One is to seek some kind of foreign intervention. Another is to persuade France-based opposition figure Sam Rainsy to return to the country for the first time since 2015. 

 

“The Candlelight Party can call for a small protest, but if Sam Rainsy returns, there will be a bigger movement,” he said. “If Sam Rainsy is in the country, there will be a bigger force.”

 

Party officials will organize a public protest of the Council’s decision soon, Rong Chhun said.

However, Hun Sen recently warned against holding any protest, saying a demonstration could lead to violence and mass arrests. He has ordered prisons to prepare their cells for opposition party members. 

 

Activists and party officials targeted

 

Authorities have arrested several top Candlelight Party officials in recent months. Some activists have complained of a campaign of intimidation, while others have been persuaded by the promise of a government position to switch their allegiance to the CPP. 

The Candlelight Party has attracted support over the last several years with a policy platform centered around improving social welfare benefits such as offering free check-ups and treatment at public hospitals and raising the minimum monthly wage for garment workers and civil servants.

 

Eng Sokha, a voter in Phnom Penh, said the CPP must be afraid of competing with the opposition’s popularity. It’s well-known that Candlelight’s paperwork was valid enough for it to compete in the 2022 commune elections, she said.

 

“So there is no reason that the party can’t join this election. I am disappointed,” she said, adding that she might not vote.

 

CPP spokesman Sok Ey San dismissed any concerns about the election’s validity. If Candlelight Party supporters don’t vote, then the CPP will continue to lead the country, he said.

 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cambodia-party-rejected-05252023215006.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Prime Minister Hun Sen publicly lashed out at Western diplomats on Monday, saying they have insulted him in the past by visiting with detained opposition leader Kem Sokha. 

 

“In the future, don’t be arrogant again in the application of your foreign policy,” he said at the inauguration of a tire factory in Sihanoukville. 

“The diplomats in Phnom Penh should understand it,” the prime minister said. “It is because of you, you made me not trust you. Therefore, why should I do work that is in favor of you?” 

 

Kem Sokha was arrested in 2017 on treason charges. He was finally sentenced in March to 27 years in prison in a verdict widely condemned as politically motivated.

 

It was unclear if any diplomats have visited Kem Sokha since the March verdict. Before his sentencing, ambassadors from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States often met with him at his Phnom Penh home while he was under house arrest.

 

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman went to see Kem Sokha during a June 2021 trip that included a meeting with Hun Sen. An angry prime minister later said that she secretly went to Kem Sokha’s home without informing the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

‘Foreigners who insult me’

On Monday, Hun Sen said he doesn’t “trust foreigners who insult me, insult my sovereignty, insult myself when they worked with me and at the same time worked with others.”

 

He issued a similar public warning in April when he cautioned “Cambodia’s foreign friends” who support opposition party groups and politicians. 

“You have to choose between an individual group that breaks the laws and the government,” he said. “Please choose one. If you need those who were penalized by law, please do so, and you can then break diplomatic relations from Cambodia.”

 

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Stephanie Arzate told Radio Free Asia that the United States doesn’t “support any particular individual, institution, or political party” in Cambodia. But American officials “regularly meet with a wide range of individuals, in accordance with diplomatic norms and practices.”

 

Kem Sokha has always denied the charges that led to his arrest, which took place months after the party he co-founded – the Cambodia National Rescue Party – had a strong showing in that year’s local commune elections. 

 

The arrest kicked off a broad government crackdown against civic activists and journalists. A similar crackdown has taken place in recent months against activists for the Candlelight Party, which has taken the CNRP’s place as the country’s main opposition party. 

‘Just a political trick’

Last week, the National Election Committee ruled that the Candlelight Party couldn’t appear on the ballot for the July parliamentary elections, citing inadequate paperwork.

 

Australia-based social development researcher Seng Sary said Hun Sen may have brought up the embassy visits to divert public attention ahead of the election and to show he is a strong politician who isn’t afraid to confront powerful countries.

 

“This is just a political trick to draw support and to show power to the people and to the opposition leadership,” he said.

Hun Sen also said on Monday there remains a possibility that Kem Sokha could be pardoned by King Norodom Sihamoni – but only if the prime minister chooses to make the request in writing to the king.

 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/foreign-embassies-interference-05222023164609.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

A court in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province has charged three men with incitement after they advised farmers of their constitutional rights, prompting more than 200 farmers to descend on the capital to call for their release.

 

On the afternoon of May 17, authorities in Kratie province arrested Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community President Theng Savoeun and 16 of his colleagues for “inciting social unrest” and “conspiracy to commit treason.”

 

According to local rights group ADHOC, the arrests took place after the 17 met with farmers in Ratanakiri to discuss agricultural techniques and their rights as Cambodian citizens. That same day, police set 14 of the detainees free after they agreed to thumbprint a statement pledging that they would no longer conduct training sessions.

 

The Ratanakiri Provincial Court formally charged Theng Savoeun and two others – Thach Hach and Nhel Pheap – and ordered them detained at the provincial prison.

 

Nearly six days later, the trio remain in detention and have been refused access to lawyers or family members – visits they are guaranteed after 24 hours in custody, according to Cambodian law.

 

Over the weekend, some 200 farmers – mostly women – from various provinces traveled to the Ministry of Interior in Phnom Penh to demand their release, claiming that they had provided assistance and done nothing illegal.

 

‘My son is not a dog’

 

Among them was Theng Savoeun’s mother, Toch Satt, who vowed that she will not leave the premises until her son is freed.

 

“Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, I urge you to resolve this case – get it done today or I will not go home,” she shouted in front of the ministry on Monday, three days after joining other farmers in the capital to protest the detentions. 

 

“My son is not a dog, he is a human being,” she said. “I regret that you arrested my son, who did nothing wrong. My son serves the interests of the people.”

 

Other protesters – several of whom were carrying infants – held photos of the three detainees and cardboard signs calling for their freedom.

 

One protester from Koh Kong province named Keut Neou told RFA Khmer that she and others had arrived in Phnom Penh to protest on May 19 and had since run out of money. She said they have been staying for free at a Buddhist temple in the suburbs, but are unable to afford rides downtown to the ministry.

 

“We are poor people and farmers – we have no money, so we all decided to walk,” she said.

 

Another farmer from Koh Kong named Nhel Sreymom urged Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, to help find justice for the three detainees.

 

“Please, Samdech father and mother, help find a solution for them,” she said, using an honorific for the prime minister. “These three people are innocent.” 

 

‘Planning peasant revolution’

 

Ministry of Interior officials on Monday met with 10 farmers’ representatives and accepted a petition calling for their release. The officials said Hun Sen will examine and consider their demands.

 

ADHOC human rights spokesperson Soeung Senkaruna urged the Ratanakiri court to reconsider the charges against Theng Savoeun, Thach Hach and Nhel Pheap.

 

“If the charges still have reasonable doubt, the court should hold off on the charges because, from my view, Theng Savoeun has done a lot of work to help farmers to supplement the assistance of the government,” he said.

 

Attempts by RFA to contact Ratanakiri Provincial Police Commissioner Ung Sopheap and Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak about the case went unanswered Monday.

 

However, Khieu Sopheak told local media group CamboJa on May 19 that Theng Savoeun and his associates were involved in “planning a peasant revolution.”

 

The Cambodian Farmers' Community Association has vehemently denied the allegations, saying it only instructed farmers on agricultural laws and techniques. The group, which claims to have a membership of around 20,000 people across Cambodia, was founded in 2011 to assist farmers from 10 communities who say their land was encroached on.

 

‘Crackdown’ on rights groups

 

Local rights groups – including LICADHO, ADHOC and the Cambodian Center for the Defense of Human Rights – are monitoring the case and told RFA that the arrests not only threaten the Cambodian Farmers' Community Association, but also undermine the work of civil society.

 

The case has also drawn the attention of international rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch.

 

Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said his organization was “appalled” by the arrests and violation of laws that allow the three access to lawyers, calling it an example of how authorities “blatantly violate basic freedoms of association and expression, and totally disregard Cambodia’s international human rights obligations.”

 

Robertson also called authorities out for harassing supporters demanding the trio’s release, noting that police in Koh Kong stopped a minivan carrying Cambodian Farmers' Community Association members and prevented them from leaving the province.

 

He linked the arrests to what he called a “crackdown” on NGOs and civil society groups in Cambodia ahead of the July 23 general election, “where any sort of challenge, real or perceived, to the government is met with a maximum display of intimidation and punishment.”

 

“Cambodia should immediately and unconditionally let the CCFC 3 go free, and halt the campaign of harassment and abuse against the CCFC and other Cambodian NGOs who dare to stand up and exercise their civil and political rights,” Robertson said.

 

Illegal land grabs by developers or individuals are not uncommon in Cambodia, where officials and bureaucrats can be bribed to provide bogus land titles. Disputes over land are one of the major causes of social disturbances throughout Southeast Asia.

 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum and Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/trio-05222023180221.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

The splashy sporting extravaganza drawing to a close in Phnom Penh on Wednesday featured 12,000 participants from 11 nations and included free tickets, free food and free accommodations – and also helped Prime Minister Hun Sen shine on an international stage just before a national election.

 

The Southeast Asia Games, hosted by Cambodia for the first time, featured a US$150 million stadium built by China specifically for the event. 

And on the first day, Hun Sen presided over an elaborate opening ceremony stage-managed by Chinese technicians. King Norodom Sihamoni, Cambodia’s constitutional monarch and head of state, did not attend. 

 

The stage and light show highlighted the prime minister’s achievements since he took power in 1985 and portrayed him as a national unifier after the dark years of civil war and Khmer Rouge rule. But the cost of the event has prompted some grumbling in Cambodia, where the economy continues to lag after the COVID pandemic.

Youth activist Kim Chilin was proud that Cambodia could host a big regional event, but questioned the decision to cover the costs for everything, and the way Hun Sen exploited the event to boost his reputation.

 

“The ruling party is using this event to promote themselves and for political gain,” he said. “You cannot claim for your own credit or say that it came from the ‘big heart’ of the prime minister.”

 

‘Grab the attention of the public’

Cambodia picked up the US$7 million cost of hosting and feeding athletes from visiting nations by waiving the daily US$50 per person that is normally charged to each sports delegation.

 

Hun Sen said he did that to bring in more competitors for the games, which included 584 events across 37 sports.

“I am not hostile to the money, but the fact that we didn’t take this money was to attract more foreigners to visit and know about Cambodia,” he said in a speech in Sihanoukville on April 30. “If we took that money, we still couldn’t become rich.”

About 5,000 sports delegates stayed at a newly constructed “Sports Village,” while another 2,000 stayed at four-star hotels near the stadium.

Just before the games began, the prime minister mandated that all Cambodia television channels show the events.

“Wake up all TV stations! Please broadcast the SEA Games events!” he said. “Public and private TV stations must broadcast the SEA Games to bring nationwide excitement!” 

 

He also ordered free entrance tickets for local and foreign spectators and granted free broadcasting rights for local and foreign media.

“These were all crazy ideas,” Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok said. 

 

The US$7 million spent on the visiting athletes is normally picked up by the competitors’ home countries, he said. 

“But we didn’t ask that from them,” he said. “I don’t know why he doesn’t take that money? We could take it and spend half of it to develop our sports and use the other half as a prize for our athletes.”

For Heng Kimsour, a university student in Phnom Penh, the games have been exciting and a source of pride for a country that has waited more than six decades to host the regional Olympiad. 

 

“We have shown our rich culture and civilization to the world,” she said. 

“Nevertheless, Cambodia has spent millions of dollars to organize this event while we are still a developing country,” she said. “It seems like the government hosts the free SEA Games to grab the attention of the public so that they forget about politics and the election, as well as the illegal privatization of natural resources.”

 

China’s involvement

The new 60,000-seat national stadium was originally announced as a gift from China to Cambodia, but its name – “Morodok Techo” – means “Hun Sen’s Inheritance.”

 

Hun Sen admitted that his government couldn’t have hosted the games without China, and he publicly thanked Chinese President Xi Jingping during a speech in Phnom Penh on May 1. 

 

“Other ASEAN countries have already hosted the SEA Games; why didn’t Cambodia do it?” he said. 

“I told the ASEAN counterparts to understand that I needed money to build infrastructure, accelerate social and economic development and reduce poverty. We needed roads, bridges, irrigation systems, schools, hospitals. We needed money to build them up.”

 

Once the Chinese began building the stadium in 2013, Hun Sen told Minister of Tourism Thong Khon to prepare to host the games, he said.

China also helped with the May 5 opening ceremony. At the end of January, a team of nearly 100 people arrived in Cambodia to start working and rehearsing, Chinese director Chen Wei Tan told China Radio International.

 

The technical team was divided into directing, acting, lighting, sound and musical composition. Lights and LCD screens were also brought from China, Chen said.

“The Cambodian government needed help from China to organize the great opening ceremony and create a new image to the world,” he said. “We use our wisdom and power so that Cambodia and China can build up ‘a Community of Common Destiny’ with high quality and standards.” 

 

“Community of Common Destiny” is a phrase from a 2017 speech by Xi Jinping often used in Chinese foreign policy to promote mutual cooperation with neighboring countries.

 

Television commentators were heard using another slogan that is also often used in Chinese foreign policy: “Win-win.”

During the opening ceremony broadcast, the announcers praised the prime minister and spoke of his time in power as the “Techo” era. “Techo,” which means powerful or strong, and references an ancient Khmer warrior, is one of Hun Sen’s leadership honorifics.

 

“The win-win policy of the extraordinary founder and leader in the Techo-era fully and genuinely ended the civil war, bringing peace and full national unity, paving the way for a prosperous future and confidence and giving each and every Cambodian citizen the rights to hope, freedom and (a) warm smile,” the ceremony’s narrator said.

“Thanks for a win-win policy!” 

 

Translated by Yang Chandara. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hun-sen-sea-games-05162023163556.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Cambodia’s main opposition Candlelight Party was officially rejected by the National Election Committee on Monday and won’t be allowed to compete in the July 23 parliamentary elections.

 

The decision deals an enormous blow to opponents of Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party, which now looks like it will sail to an overwhelming victory in the vote.

 

It also repeats what happened before the last election, in 2018, when the Supreme Court dissolved the previous main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which was perceived as a threat to Hun Sen’s decades-long grip on power. The ruling CPP went on to win all 125 seats in the assembly.

 

The election committee’s decision wasn’t surprising, and it came down to an apparent problem with paperwork.

The Candlelight Party had submitted its application to register for the election, but the committee warned last week that it wouldn’t accept a statement from the Interior Ministry confirming the party’s registration in 1998. It said it required the original certificate issued by the ministry, which was lost in 2017, when the CNRP offices were raided by government agents.

 

On top of that, the committee needs that document certified by the Phnom Penh Municipality.

Candlelight Party members cried foul because the party was allowed to compete in previous local elections.

 

“Some problems are politically motivated, and that makes it a bit difficult for our country,” Candlelight Party spokesman Kim Sour Phirith told Radio Free Asia.

 

“Legally, we have documents certified by the Ministry of Interior, which is good enough for us to be able to participate in the coming election because we, the Candlelight Party, were already allowed to join last year’s commune election and then the recent city/provincial/district election,” he said.

“So we don’t know what else to do,” he said.

 

Appeals

The party has five days to file a complaint with the Constitutional Council, a judicial body that examines election disputes. Candlelight officials have also tried to meet with Hun Sen to seek his intervention, but he wouldn’t agree to meet until after the election, Kim Sour Phirith said.

 

“The Cambodian government is clearly fishing for any excuse to block opposition parties from competing,” said former Thai minister of foreign affairs Kasit Piromya.

 

“Disqualifying a party on the basis of such a small technicality fools absolutely no one and just serves as another show of the Hun Sen regime’s bad faith dealings,” he said in a statement issued by the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights group. 

 

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Stephanie Arzate said the NEC’s decision “undermines Cambodia’s democracy,” and she urged authorities “to reopen political and civic space, including ending harassment of opposition parties.”

 

Exiled opposition figure Sam Rainsy said opposition parties that emphasized democratic values won seats in Phnom Penh in the 2003 and 2013 parliamentary elections – and Hun Sen was probably worried that Candlelight Party candidates on the ballot from Phnom Penh would also perform well. 

 

“The big thing is that Hun Sen wants to transfer power to his son, Hun Manet, to become prime minister after the election,” he told RFA. “And Hun Manet is standing as first candidate for election in Phnom Penh.”

 

The Candlelight Party has attracted support with a policy platform centered around improving social welfare benefits such as offering free check-ups and treatment at public hospitals and raising the minimum monthly wage for garment workers and civil servants.

 

The election committee should explain why it recognized and allowed the Candlelight Party to participate in two recent elections, but not this one, said Kang Savang, a coordinator with the independent Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (Comfrel).

 

“Why does the NEC not accept the Ministry of Interior’s declared recognition of the CLP?” he asked. “This seemingly means that the NEC does not acknowledge the legal existence of the Ministry of Interior.”

 

The party’s registration for last year’s commune elections and the recent city and provincial elections seemed to go smoothly, legal scholar Vorn Chanloth said.

 

“So, I think we should keep using that procedure,” he said. “Any new procedure should be flexible too. That means that if a political party isn’t able to fulfill the new requirement, it should be allowed to follow the old workable procedure.” 

 

Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/candlelight-election-commitee-05152023174027.html

 

Cambodia’s election committee on Tuesday rejected a top candidate from the country’s main opposition party and said the party must correct several things before its candidates can be allowed to run in the July 23 parliamentary elections.

 

The decision comes a day after Monday’s deadline for parties to submit applications to participate in the vote that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party is widely expected to win. 

 

The CPP already controls all 125 seats in the National Assembly – a stranglehold that the opposition Candlelight Party hopes to crack at least a bit.

 

But authorities are making it difficult for the Candlelight Party to run for the election. The National Election Committee has not approved its application to field candidates in July.

 

On Tuesday, Rong Chhun, the party’s vice president and a prominent labor activist who joined the Candlelight Party in January, was barred from being listed as the party’s top candidate in Kandal province due to a prior conviction, said the committee’s secretary general, Tep Nytha.

 

In August 2021, Rong Chhun was sentenced to two years in prison for criticizing the government’s failure to address disputes over Cambodia’s shared border with Vietnam. He was later ordered to serve for 15 months, with the remainder of the sentence suspended with a three-year probation.

“He was convicted and has not been rehabilitated,” Tep Nytha wrote in a statement.

 

Versus Hun Sen

Rong Chhun would have been on the ballot opposite Hun Sen, who is running as the CPP’s top candidate in Kandal, which surrounds the capital of Phnom Penh.

 

Rong Chhun said he was allowed to vote in last year’s commune elections. If that wasn’t a probation violation, then running as a candidate this year also shouldn’t be a problem, he told Radio Free Asia.

 

The party will have no option but to remove him from its candidate list, said spokesman Kim Sour Phirith.

“It is sad that the NEC won’t allow him to run,” he said. “Election law says Rong Chhun can run, but this was just an excuse.”

 

The Candlelight Party submitted its application to the election commission on Saturday after the Ministry of Interior issued a statement recognizing the party. 

 

The party had lost its original statement from the ministry during a 2017 raid on the offices of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which at the time was the country’s leading opposition party before it was shut down by the Supreme Court. The party had received 44 percent of the votes in the 2013 general election, but was unable to run in the 2018 elections.

 

The election commission still needs a copy of the Ministry of Interior's statement and has asked that the party also provide a copy of the receipt showing it paid 15 million riel (about US$3,600) to register.

 

Another key opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-imposed exile in France, urged the international community not to recognize the results of the July 23 election, which he said would be a sham.

 

This year’s election is “shaping up along the usual lines” compared to 2018, the Sam Rainsy wrote in an op-ed for Nikkei Asia on Tuesday. 

 

“There will not be any surprises when the votes are counted,” he wrote. “The presence of a small symbolic opposition allows Hun Sen to present a facade of democracy to dampen international criticism.”

 

Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/candlelight-candidate-ballot-05092023133447.html

Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.