As sure as night follows day, Cambodia’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has sued a senior member of the opposition Candlelight Party (CLP) for claiming that this month’s commune elections were unfair.
According to a complaint filed by a government lawyer on Tuesday, the CPP administration is suing Son Chhay, the party’s vice president, for $1 million in compensation for comments he made in an online interview, the local media outlet Cambodianess reported Tuesday.
The June 5 commune and sangkat election, an important bellwether for next year’s national election, saw Prime Minister Hun Sen’s hegemonic party win 9,338 out of the 11,622 commune council seats up for election, while the CLP, the latest incarnation of the opposition party founded by the opposition leader Sam Rainsy in 1995, won 2,119 council seats.
