Cambodia approves new political party

Xinhua Sunday, 19 July 2015

PHNOM PENH, (Xinhua) -- The Cambodian Interior Ministry has approved a new political party led by self-exiled dissident Sourn Serey Ratha, whose Khmer People Power Movement had been previously labeled a terrorist group by the government.

In a statement issued Friday night, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng said he decided to register the Khmer Power Party led by Sourn Serey Ratha in the Political Party List.

The official recognition of the party came after King Norodom Sihamoni, at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen, last week granted a pardon to Ratha, who was convicted and sentenced in absentia in January to seven years in prison by a Cambodian court for incitement, plotting an attack and obstructing elections in 2013.

He currently lives in the United States.

Political analysts say the presence of the Khmer Power Party may split the vote of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in the 2018 national elections.

In the last elections in 2013, Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won 68 parliamentary seats against 55 seats for the CNRP in the 123-seat parliament.