Cambodia’s Opposition Leader Runs Out of Options To Contest Polls

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy appears to have run out of options in his bid to contest in Cambodia’s national polls, as the country’s political parties prepared to wrap up their election campaign amid allegations by independent observers of “arrests, threats and intimidation” by the ruling party. Three days before the July 28 polls, Sam Rainsy, head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), received notification from the National Assembly, the country’s parliament, denying his request for a restoration of his lawmaker status and to contest in the election. The opposition politician has been pushing for his right to contest the elections after he returned from self-exile in France last week following a pardon he received from King Norodom Sihamoni for convictions widely seen as politically motivated. “The National Assembly’s permanent committee members would like to inform the CNRP president that as the CNRP doesn’t control any assembly seats, the assembly is unable to reinstate your immunity,” National Assembly president Heng Samrin wrote in a letter to Sam Rainsy, a copy of which was received by RFA’s Khmer Service. The National Assembly is dominated by long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), which sacked all 29 CNRP lawmakers last month after they formed a new party. Another appeal by Sam Rainsy to the Constitutional Council to contest in the election was also rejected on Thursday, according to a report by Agence France-Presse. …

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/rejections-07252013164156.html