PM apologizes as defections continue

By Neth Pheaktra

The Mekong Times

Prime Minister Hun Sen apologized to opposition leader Sam Rainsy Saturday for the inconvenience caused by Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) officials defecting to his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). However, he again declared he would welcome all opposition defectors.Speaking at the inauguration of a temple in Kompong Chhang province, the premier revealed that the CPP has just received Kim Ouchansamith, the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) deputy president of Prey Veng. Kim Ouchansamith has already been appointed as a government advisor and is a candidate for the position of lawmaker, Hun Sen said. “The CPP will continue to receive [other party officials] both before and after the election,” Hun Sen said. “It will receive [officials] both new and old without discrimination. [It] collects all.” Hun Sen’s declaration comes as political parties are beginning to register party names and candidates for July’s parliamentary election with the National Election Committee (NEC). The premier said that defections “can make some parties find it difficult to prepare a list of candidates to register with the NEC. Some candidates who have already been registered have defected to other parties.” “I apologize to H.E Sam Rainsy for making H.E find it difficult to prepare a list of candidates for the position of lawmakers,” Hun Sen said.Sam Rainsy said he was unconcerned by recent defections. “I know how to consider the SRP’s matters, and it is not necessary for other parties to worry for the SRP,” he assured. “We will solve the problems in a proper and timely manner. Therefore, I have no worries about the preparation of the SRP’s candidate list, and we will submit it on time.”NEC Secretary General Tep Nitha said yesterday that registered candidates who defect must be deleted from NEC lists. “If [the defecting candidate is] officially registered, we have to delete his name, and a reserved candidate will replace him,” he explained. “According to the election law, the NEC will delete the name of any person who stands for two parties, and will not allow him to stand for any party.”Sam Rainsy said members’ defections to other parties had actually benefited the SRP. “The defection of a person did not cause any serious [impacts] to SRP because those at the grassroots levels maintain their wisdom,” he claimed. “We gained support from tens thousands of CPP members who are not satisfied with the corruption of CPP officials, improper economic control, land grabbing and soaring commodity prices” Hun Sen has repeatedly denied accusations of corruption in defection deals. “I have no need to buy people and people are not goods,” he said. “Apart from the mistakes of the political parties they [defectors] were once in, there is also another point – the CPP is politically in the right.”