The CPP has filed a complaint to a commune election committee in Takeo province alleging that a group of CNRP supporters obstructed a ruling party parade of about 400 supporters on Saturday, officials said yesterday.
Pich Chhim, deputy head of the CPP in Koh Andet district’s Prey Khla commune, said the group of opposition supporters—numbering fewer than 20—stopped the parade from passing a road at about 8:30 a.m.
Video footage of the incident shows a CPP supporter asking an irate CNRP supporter to allow his group to pass, and the opposition activist seeming to accuse the CPP of murder, in an apparent reference to critics’ claims of state-sponsored murders.
“You are stupid,” the CNRP supporter says. “My party never killed anyone.”
Ms. Chhim said the situation was only defused when commune election committee officers and police intervened. Her complaint demanded that 16 CNRP activists be barred from voting in the June 4 commune elections and fined 20 million riel, or about $5,000, apiece and that the opposition party be prohibited from conducting election parades in the commune, she said.
Neang Sokun, head of the commune election committee, said the standoff was on the verge of becoming serious by the time he arrived.
“Right now, I am negotiating with both sides to solve the issue,” Mr. Sokun said.
Election law says that parties can negotiate settlements for minor infractions and specifies that the dispute be referred to the provincial election committee if the parties cannot reach a compromise.
Keo Eat, the head of the CNRP in the commune and whom Ms. Chhim accused of instigating the confrontation, could not be reached for comment.
