The ballot for this year’s general election will be missing two of the most prominent party names in national politics thanks to the party splits that have been rife in past years.
The tug of war over party names and leadership means there will be no Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party and no Khmer Nation Party on the July 26 ballot. But there will be a slew of parties with familiar-sounding names.
Since the 1993 UN-sponsored elections, there have been so many splits and squabbles that two of the top three vote-getters—the BLDP and Funcinpec—have splintered into no less than 11 separate parties.
Of the top three, only the Cambodian People’s Party has survived intact, despite periodic rumors of trouble within its ranks.
Prince Norodom Ranariddh, KNP founder Sam Rainsy and the BLDP-Son Sann all have accused the CPP of engineering the party splits to weaken them as opponents.
Funcinpec especially has fallen far since its strong 1993 position, with 58 of the 120 National Assembly members.
Five years, a coalition government and fierce military action later, Funcinpec leader Prince Ranariddh—deposed as first premier in July—seems to have only 14 parliament supporters.
Plus, Funcinpec has suffered the loss of several key officials. Ung Huot, who directed the 1993 campaign for Ranariddh and later replaced the prince as first premier, has formed his own party, Reastr Niyum. He has pledged to form a CPP coalition if elected.
Former Funcinpec Secretary-General Loy Sim Chheang also has formed a new party, Sangkum Thmei. Both party names bear striking resemblance to King Norodom Sihanouk’s political movement of the 1950s and ’60s, Sangkum Reastr Niyum.
The battle for the BLDP name ended with neither party using the name, although CPP ally Ieng Mouly’s new party is called the Buddhist Liberal Party.
But how the name game will affect the outcome of the polls remains to be seen.
Peter Schier, a longtime political observer in Cambodia, said the end result does not appear too detrimental to the opposition. That is because Prince Ranariddh was able to retain the Funcinpec name, while the Son Sann BLDP and KNP changed their names to the Son Sann Party and Sam Rainsy Party, respectively. “Cambodian politics is very much personalized, so people should be able to identify these parties without much trouble,” Schier said.
Nevertheless, he said, the fracturing of Funcinpec, BLDP and the KNP weakens them.
And what is the CPP’s secret for staying together as its rivals unravel? Senior party official Khieu Kanharith says it is the party’s democratic process. “Despite what many people say about the CPP being communist, it is in fact the most democratic party. We put everything on the table for discussion before making a decision,” he said.
Defectors from both Funcinpec and the KNP have said Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy are autocratic and do not tolerate dissent.
Asked about alleged CPP involvement in the splits, Khieu Kanharith said his party is being used as a “scapegoat” for the parties’ own internal problems.
