Cambodia’s Candlelight Party shines ahead of local elections – challenges CPP’s vice-like grip
- New party is contesting upcoming local elections, hoping to resurrect political opposition to one-party state under Prime Minister Hun Sen, ruler for 37 years
- Ruling CPP controls vast majority of 1,652 communes, maintains vice-like grip on political landscape and has moved to crush dissent by jailing 100 for treason
Speaking from the back of a pickup truck decked out with campaign posters and loudspeakers, veteran politician Son Chhay is determined to convince voters that democracy in Cambodia is not dead.
With the newly created Candlelight Party, he and other activists are contesting upcoming local elections, hoping to resurrect political opposition to what has become a one-party state under Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has in recent years moved to crush all dissent by jailing more than 100 opposition members for treason, prompting international criticism of Hun Sen, who has ruled for 37 years.
“A victory for the Candlelight Party is a victory for all Cambodians,” Son Chhay, the party’s vice-president, told cheering crowds gathered recently on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, as campaigning got under way for the nationwide commune elections on June 5.
But the CPP, which controls the vast majority of 1,652 communes, maintains a vice-like grip on the political landscape that analysts say the fledgling opposition party is unlikely to loosen given the intimidation and legal and bureaucratic battles it faces.
Sok Eysan, a spokesperson for the ruling CPP, dismissed as insubstantial any contest posed by the sole opposition camp, dismissing it as a “piece of broken glass”.
