Parties claim boycott call will gift CPP win

OPPOSITION parties said yesterday that the court dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and its allies are handing a landslide victory to the ruling party, no thanks to their calls to boycott the July 29 national elections.

But refuting claims that it is counterproductive, the CNRP’s for mer v ice president Mu Sochua said its work to encourage the boycott would continue.

Sochua told ThePost v ia email that the court-dissolved party would continue to do its job. “[CPP president and caretaker Prime Minister] Hun Sen worries the most about a boycott. We will continue the call,” she wrote.

However, Sam Inn, secretary-general and spokesman of t he Grassroots Democratic Party (GDP), which was created by leaders of well-known civil society organisations, considered the “Sleep At Home” or “Clean Fingers” movement as i nadver tent ly helpi ng t he Cambodian People’s Pa r t y (CPP).

“The Sleep at Home campaign will create bad habits for Cambodian people in politics, especially towards voting. This campaign will help the CPP to win a landslide v ictor y,” he said.

Inn said the opposition party “should immediately stop this campaign and urge the people to exercise their right to vote for change”.

Similarly, Kong Monika, president of the Khmer Will Party (KWP), a majority of whose candidates are former CNRP activists, believes t he actions of former CNRP president Sam Rainsy went “contrary to democratic principles”.

“The dissolving of CNRP and the Clean Fingers movement illustrate a strong split in Cambodian societ y which is not good for the younger generation.

“It is time for veteran politicia ns to u n ite t he nat ion through discussions, so people ca n l ive happi ly. They should place nationa l interests above persona l ones,” Monika said.

But Ou Chanrath, a former CNRP lawmaker, saw it differently: “In my opinion, what it (CNRP) did, some think opposes democratic principles. Does this election ref lect democratic principles?

“National and international groups have said this election is cont roversia l a nd some countries have said it is not a proper election,” he claimed.

Political analyst Meas Ny reiterated that going to vote was a persona l choice. He claimed that if the turnout was high it would be a CPP victory. However, if it is low it would mean a victory for the CNRP.

“If few people show up at the polls, it would show the ruling party that a lot of people dislike it ... if 70 to 80 per cent show up at the polling stations it means that the CNRP’s claim that it has a lot of suppor ters i s untrue,” Ny said.