Candlelight Party leaders denied Prime Minister Hun Sen’s accusations that it had intentionally disqualified itself from the national elections as a political ploy, in a Tuesday statement.
A Candlelight spokesperson said Wednesday that its lawyers are researching Cambodian law to find a way to prevent disqualification from future elections and challenge the Constitutional Council’s ruling to uphold the National Election Committee’s rejection of the party’s registration.
“Candlelight Party will try all means to participate in the July elections, contrary to accusations that Candlelight has no genuine willingness to join the elections,” the party stated.
Candlelight, the main opposition party, said it had asked the Interior Ministry many times to provide it with a copy of the party’s 1998 registration documents as requested by the National Election Committee (NEC) and that these requests were repeatedly ignored or denied by the Ministry.
Instead, the Ministry offered Candlelight a letter confirming its status as a registered political party which was later rejected by the NEC, disqualifying Candlelight from participation in the July 23 elections, the party’s statement said.
The ruling was upheld by the Constitutional Council on May 25 and the NEC and Interior Ministry have stated that this ruling is final.
“We really wanted [participate in the elections], even if the Constitutional Council has ruled us out, if there is a political settlement then Candlelight can join the election,” said Candlelight spokesperson Kimsour Phearith.
“That they have rejected our participation [in the elections] was politically motivated,” he added. “Besides a little bit of technical issues.”
Phearith said that the party is trying to convince the Interior Ministry to re-issue its 1998 party registration “to provide Candlelight for use in the future and avoid further accusations against each other.”
He added that Candlelight’s lawyers are seeking to discuss Prakas 193 — the 1998 document which registered Candlelight as a legal entity, then known as the Sam Rainsy Party — with the Interior Ministry and cite relevant portions of the 1988 Law on Political Party.
Yet as of Wednesday, the party did not know which articles from the law it could cite to make its case, Phearith admitted.
“We will discuss the Prakas number 193 [party registration] in order for the Interior ministry to reconsider giving it to us because we have a reason for losing it,” Phearith said, referring to a 2017 raid by authorities on the party’s headquarters, in which the document was lost.
The NEC and relevant government authorities said the issue was closed.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Khieu Sopheak said the Constitutional Council already confirmed the NEC’s ruling and the Ministry would follow this and would not re-issue the 1998 party registration.
“In the Paris Peace Agreement no articles stated that Candlelight Party participating in the election makes democracy,” Sopheak said. “Secondly, the Cambodian Constitution wasn’t stipulated that it must have Candlelight to become a democracy, it does not.”
Sopheak reiterated Hun Sen’s warnings of legal action against Candlelight supporters who protested the NEC’s decision.
“It is their issue [losing the 1998 document], there is no law that must have Candlelight to participate and if you want to cause turmoil to national security then the prison is always open, please try it,” he told CamboJA.
Hun Sen repeated his threats against Candlelight supporters on Wednesday.
“Please do not mess with the demonstrations, I had given a message and my message is still valuable, and I do not need to issue a second message, the first message is still valuable and capture all those who come to destroy national stability and sub-national level,” Hun Sen said during an inauguration for a Phnom Penh bridge.
“The date for registering has expired,” said NEC spokesperson Hang Puthea.
Phearith said that the Candlelight, while disqualified from the July elections, is still legally allowed to operate, such as holding national and sub-national meetings, given the party’s updated registered status with the Interior Ministry from 2017. However, that updated registration was later rejected by the NEC for the July elections.
Ruling CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan said there will be “no political negotiations” because the Constitutional Council has already confirmed Candlelight’s inability to participate in the elections.
“Now it is over,” Eysan said. “No time to talk anymore.”
On Monday, the NEC carried out a lottery for the position of the 18 registered political parties on the ballot. The Beehive Social Democratic Party was listed first on the ballot while the ruling CPP was given the last spot.
In last year’s commune elections Candlelight earned more than 1.6 million votes or around 22.25% of the popular vote, earning 2,198 commune councilor seats. The ruling CPP won 74.32% of the popular vote.
“We still remain to strengthen the spirit of our supporters to support our leaders at grassroot levels who still advocate and continue to support the Candlelight party because of our stance to restore fundamental democracy,” Phearith said.
