Representatives of five political parties hold a press conference on September 02. Hong Menea
The Candlelight Party (CP) has refused the request of three other parties to join a "Political Alliance 2023", saying that they didn't feel it was necessary and there wasn't enough time between now and the next election to accomplish much with it.
Vice-president of the Candlelight Party (CP) Son Chhay told The Post on September 11 that his party thought that they did not have enough time to form any kind of meaningful alliance before the 2023 national election as the party has been focused on preparing its local leaders.
Chhay added that merging parties to form a new party was very difficult and in some cases impossible, but the Candlelight Party would welcome all other parties to join their party because it was the easiest route to take. He said there were many procedures as well as the possibility of time consuming negotiations if they were to do something else like merge parties.
"I used to negotiate during then Sam Rainsy and Human Rights [parties] era on member quotas and power sharing, but at this stage the party understands that there is no need to negotiate about dividing power in provinces or merging,” he said.
He said CP welcomed cooperation other parties and would work together with them as the party has done in the past.
According to Chhay, the CP is currently preparing its party structure and bylaws to make it an organisation that can welcome any other party's members that want to join them, because after the Commune Council elections and their relative success as a new party they've now got a lot of popularity and support.
Four parties – Candlelight, Grassroots Democratic (GDP), Khmer Will (KWP) and Cambodian Reform (CRP) – have recently begun working together on the plan of merging.
GDP spokesman Loek Sothea told The Post on September 11 that on behalf of the party, he expressed regret over the CP's decision not to join the "2023 Political Alliance".
Sothea added that the rejection showed that Cambodian politicians weren't serious about working together yet, but it was the CP’s right to make this decision because they thought that they already had a large enough reserve of political capital and did not need to rely on other political parties.
"The rejection does not affect the joint advocacy we've undertaken, because even if not united under one party umbrella, CP does not reject the positions we've taken while cooperating with other forms of advocacy,” he said.
Cambodian political analyst Em Sovannara told The Post on September 11 that if they are not united or allied as a single force, the parties outside the government would all find it difficult to compete or win power from the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).
