The Candlelight Party’s vice president announced his resignation from the main opposition party, telling reporters on Thursday that he will join the newly formed National Power Party.
The announcement diverges from a decision made last month by other top Candlelight Party officials to align with the smaller Khmer Will Party as opposition activists prepare for upcoming district and Senate elections.
Rong Chhun, 54, said he’s looking forward to working with the party’s young and energetic supporters.
“This is a party for youths and the younger generation,” he said of the National Power Party. “They are young. I am the oldest.”
Candlelight Party candidates were kept off the July general election ballot by the National Election Committee, which wouldn’t recognize the party because it couldn’t produce its original registration form issued by the Interior Ministry.
With no real opposition, the ruling Cambodian People’s Party won 120 of 125 seats in the National Assembly.
Efforts by Candlelight leaders to regain official status in recent months have failed, which has led to an effort to seek out smaller parties certified by the ministry.
‘Clean and fresh and new’
Rong Chhun told reporters he’s leaving the Candlelight Party because of its lack of official status, adding that he chose the National Power Party over the Khmer Will Party because the latter party has shown itself to be “not as clean.”
“The Power Party can continue the Candlelight Party’s destination and continue the spirits of the democrats,” he said. “It is clean and fresh and new and wasn’t involved with politics before.”
Even though it was officially registered, the Khmer Will Party did not appear on the general election ballot in July. Its president is Kong Monika, a former senior member of the Candlelight Party. His father, Kong Korm, was once a senior adviser to the Candlelight Party.
The National Power Party hasn’t decided on Rong Chhun’s position yet, but top positions and titles should be determined at a party congress scheduled for Sunday, party President Sun Chanthy told Radio Free Asia.
Candlelight Party spokesman Kim Sou Phirith told RFA that his party respects the Rong Chhun’s decision.
“It is not the sole responsibility of the Candlelight Party to restore democracy,” he said. “Those parties that share the same or similar goals. We can share the work to reach the goal. Right now, we can work individually but soon we will get back together.”
Criminal conviction for border comments
Long known as a prominent labor activist, Rong Chhun only joined the Candlelight Party last January.
In May, just weeks before the National Election Committee ruled against the Candlelight Party, the committee barred Rong Chhun from being listed as the party's top candidate in Kandal province.
He would have been on the ballot opposite then-Prime Minister Hun Sen, who ran as the CPP’s top candidate in Kandal, which surrounds the capital of Phnom Penh.
But the committee's secretary general cited Rong Chhun's 2021 conviction for criticizing the government's failure to address disputes over Cambodia's shared border with Vietnam.
CPP spokesman Sok Ey San told RFA on Thursday that Rong Chhun is doing flip-flop politics.
“He is jumping from the party that has few voices to the party that has no none,” he said.
Translated by Yun Samean. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.