CNRP Admits Petition Had Some Irregularities

The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) acknowledged there may have been some minor irregularities in the thumbprints on its petition submitted to the King, but said the document has lost none of its validity and the government should address the demands in the petition rather than overtly scrutinizing it. During a press conference yesterday, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said the petition was not a public document and urged the government to ignore what he called minor irregularities and instead focus on resolving the current political crisis that has led to the opposition party boycotting the National Assembly.

“Petitions are not public documents as minor groups have claimed, neither are they a contract or an agreement. So the government should listen to people and solve it, and avoid finding faults or errors, or to make it a serious problem,” he said. “The CNRP believes the government should change its focus and handle the requests, not pick up those minor mistakes.”

The petition, which included more than 170,000 signatures, was submitted to the King last month and urged that all political prisoners be released, including jailed CNRP members, and called on the government to stop using its power over the judiciary to silence its critics and to stop ignoring the immunity granted to politicians. However, since the petition was lodged, various unverified sources have claimed that up to 40 percent of the thumbprints featured irregularities, with Prime Minister Hun Sen ordering the Interior Ministry to investigate these claims.

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