More than 250 street vendors in Banteay Meanchey province on Monday protested outside provincial governor Kousoum Saroeuth’s office after authorities ordered them to leave locations surrounding a local market, a rights worker said Tuesday.
The vendors from Serei Saophoan Market claimed to have signed a 19-year contract with authorities, which is still good for another 15 years, said Bin Sophoan, provincial investigator for the rights group Adhoc.
“The protest stopped after provincial deputy Governor Chong Phet met them and promised to inform them of a solution on Thursday,” said Ms. Sophoan.
The vendors currently occupy space on a 5-meter wide concrete road surrounding the market as part of a 2010 contract with local authorities and a contractor to collect an “informal tax” from the vendors.
But Governor Kousoum Saroeuth said he canceled the contract.
“We must remove those vendors because they used the road for selling their products and are causing traffic to jump off the road sometimes,” he said, adding that the vendors could move to two nearby privately owned markets.
“We have negotiated with Huy Leng [market] and the Night Market to get those vendors [to move there] because they are clean places and both markets’ owners agreed to give them one year free of charge.”
Mr. Saroeuth said the vendors would be ordered to vacate their spots after Khmer New Year next week.
