Two Minor Parties Invite All Parties to Unify

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh 07 July 2008

The Society of Justice and Khmer Anti-Poverty parties on Monday made a public invitation for the country's nine other parties to join them for the upcoming election.

"I urge you, the small parties and big parties, come and join us," Kravanh Daran, president of the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party, said Monday. "I want you to unify. This is the sample of unity of our country. Please be brave and stand up, go forward to reach our beautiful destiny. I would like all of you to come together."

Both parties announced they would officially join together to help each other's candidates.

"After the political alliance, we can get more support from the voters," Ban Sophal, president of the Society of Justice Party, said. "And from now on, we cannot lose our voters."

Officials of the Sam Rainsy and Human Rights parties said Monday they were not concerned with such unity, but with their separate political campaigns.

The Society of Justice and Khmer Anti-Poverty parties are both running on platforms of unity, claiming Monday that "Cambodia was once a large and well-known country but now it is small and un-unified" and calling the country's leaders to "work together" for Cambodians, "who are awaiting unity."