Former CNRP lawmaker appeals the reallocation of CNRP's seats at sub-national level

Tin Sokhavuth



On Thursday, Fresh News reported that the complaint to appeal the reallocation of the CNRP's seats at sub-national level, filed by Mr. Ou Chanrath, former lawmaker of the dissolved opposition party CNRP, reached the Supreme Court in the same day.

On Thursday, Mr. Chanrath, with the help from his lawyer Mr. Pheng Heng, filed the second complaint to the Supreme Court in order to appeal the verdict of the court which had rejected Mr. Chanrath's first complaint to revise the case concerning the dissolution of the CNRP, the reallocation of the CNRP's seats at sub-national level, and the ban of 118 CNRP lawmakers from politics.

Regarding this issue, Attorney Sok Samoeun told reporters that by law, the CRNP had the rights to file the complaint to the Supreme Court, because the reallocation of CNRP seats to other political parties was done by the National Election Committee (NEC.)

The Supreme Court on December 13 issued a verdict rejecting Mr. Chanrath's appeal to revise the case stating that following Article 45 of the amended law on political parties, the decision of the Supreme Court is the final word.

On November 16, the Supreme Court issued a verdict to dissolve the main opposition party CNRP following a complaint filed in October by the Ministry of Interior accusing the CNRP for the attempt to overthrow the current government, by inciting Cambodian people to a «colour revolution» backed by the United States.

A few hours after the verdict was issued, the European Union (EU) declared that the dissolution of the CNRP was unconstitutional. Since then, the EU repeatedly asked the Cambodian government to restore the situation in which the CNRP and its supporters could freely carry out their activities.

In its statement, the EU repeated what the US Government previously said that the dissolution of the CNRP disenfranchised the Cambodian people who chose to vote for the CNRP in 2013 and 2017.

In the same day, the US Government also issued a statement asking the Cambodian government to «UNDO» the dissolution of the CNRP, to release Mr. Kem Sokha, CNRP's president, and to restore the situation in which civil society and media could freely function.