Funcinpec issued a statement on Tuesday denying any plans to replace its secretary-general, while the Sam Rainsy Party announced its own deputy leader will step down.
Funcinpec’s information committee Director Chea Chanboribo wrote that royalist party Secretary-General Prince Norodom Sirivudh will not be replaced by the party leader’s half-brother Prince Norodom Chakrapong, as reported Tuesday in local Khmer-language newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea Daily.
“We would like to deny that there is any reshuffle of the secretary-general now and in the future,” he said in the statement. “Funcinpec needs only Prince Norodom Sirivudh to be the secretary-general, because he always tries his best to serve the party,” he added.
Noranarith Anandayath, Cabinet chief to Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, said that reports of a party shuffle were groundless.
“I don’t know the reason” for the claim, he said Tuesday.
Prince Sirivudh was known to be a close friend of opposition leader Sam Rainsy before Funcinpec formed a coalition government with the CPP in July.
He has since become co-Minister of the Interior, heading one of the most powerful ministries in the government, and has not been seen in public with Sam Rainsy since the breakup of Funcinpec and the Sam Rainsy Party’s Alliance of Democrats.
On Tuesday, the Sam Rainsy Party’s Deputy Secretary-General Meng Rita said opposition Secretary-General Eng Chhay Eang will step down from his position in 2006 to open the post to other candidates in the party.
“Eng Chhay Eang said that he wants a new person to replace him to ensure a democratic process in the party,” Meng Rita said. He did not say who the contenders for his position would be.
Eng Chhay Eang has been the party’s secretary-general since it formed in 1998.
