A group of 105 university students showed up outside CNRP headquarters yesterday with a petition demanding that Kem Sokha respond to the release of phone conversations earlier this week purportedly between him and an alleged mistress.

The students, who insisted they have no political affiliations, stood outside for an hour before submitting the petition when no meeting with the deputy opposition party chief materialised.

The group said they also planned to travel to Sihanoukville today to publicly confront Sokha at a rally.

Peng Phirun, a third-year law student, said the group wanted Sokha to come clean on the allegations because, if guilty, he would be “a bad model for the younger generation”.

Sebastian Strangio, author of Hun Sen’s Cambodia, said there was very little chance the students were politically unaffiliated, given that it was rare for students to organise politically without the backing of a party.

“Denying any political affiliations is entirely par for the course in this sort of operation,” he added.

Additional reporting by Ananth Baliga