Cambodia’s two main opposition parties have joined forces to challenge Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s 27-year grip on power at a general election next year in July, a spokesman for the new group said yesterday.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party, formed by the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party, received official approval from the interior ministry on Tuesday, spokesman Pol Ham said.
It will be headed by opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who is seen as Hun Sen’s main rival, but who lives in France to avoid prison for a string of convictions that critics contend are politically motivated.
“We hope that if Sam Rainsy can return we can win the election ... or at least make it a closer race,” Pol said, adding that many grassroots party members supported the move to team up.
For now, both parties will remain separate so that their elected officials can keep their seats until the next polls, Pol said.
At the last parliamentary election in 2008, Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party won 90 of the 123 seats in the Cambodian National Assembly. The Sam Rainsy Party took 26 seats and the Human Rights Party just three.
Hun Sen, 61, has ruled the country since 1985 and has vowed to stay in power until he is 90 years old. His government is regularly accused of suppressing political freedoms and mistreating rights campaigners.
Speaking to supporters via videolink on Tuesday, Sam Rainsy, 63, vowed to return to Cambodia by December. However, Phnom Penh insists he will have to serve time in jail if he does.
“We have never banned him from coming back — it’s his right. But the court already issued the verdicts and if he returns he surely can’t avoid the legal process,” government spokesman Keo Remy said
Sam Rainsy faces a total of 11 years in prison. He was sentenced to 10 years in absentia in 2010 for publishing a false map of the border with neighboring Vietnam, though the punishment was later reduced to seven years.
He was also given a two-year sentence for inciting racial discrimination and uprooting border markings with Vietnam in a 2009 incident.
Last year, he was given another two-year jail term for accusing the Cambodian foreign minister of being a member of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel
RSS