CNRP Says Rally’s Size Could Exceed Government’s Demands

With a major opposition rally planned for this afternoon in Phnom Penh, City Hall and Ministry of Interior officials were at odds with CNRP leaders on Sunday over how many people would be allowed to attend the event. Though the Interior Ministry has said only 6,000 people will be allowed into Freedom Park, the opposition said it could not guarantee how many people would attend the event to listen to CNRP leaders Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha. … “It is impossible to follow what the Ministry of Interior says,” CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said Sunday. “But we can keep our word that there will be no demonstrations tomorrow and we can keep our word on the time by ending the rally by 6 [p.m.] or 6:30 [p.m.]” … However, City Hall spokesman Long Dimanche said Sunday that the CNRP had agreed to demands to limit the crowd size, though he did not know how they would be enforced. “We requested that [the CNRP] have only 5,000 people for the rally, and they agreed and said they will limit the number of their supporters. I don’t know anything else,” Mr. Dimanche said. Lieutenant General Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, who announced on Friday that the CNRP’s rally must be kept to less than 6,000 people, said Sunday, when asked how authorities would control crowd size, that the line of questioning was ill-intentioned. “Your question doesn’t have good intentions. Do you want to see a crackdown or what?” he said. Over the weekend, CNRP president Sam Rainsy and vice president Kem Sokha toured the country holding rallies that have drawn sizeable crowds in Kandal, Kompong Cham and Siem Reap provinces. …

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