Mass Demonstrations Are Last Resort, Sam Rainsy

Cambodia - Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has said that mass demonstrations against recent election results are a last resort.

The president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) made the remarks immediately after arriving in Phnom Penh on Friday morning, from attending his daughter’s wedding ceremony in the United States.

Mr. Sam Rainsy repeated his claim that the CNRP won the July 28 parliamentary election by gaining at least 63 of the total 123 parliamentary seats despite the official preliminary election results announced recently by the National Election Committee confirming the ruling Cambodian People’s Party’s claim that it had won 68 seats, while the opposition won 55.

The opposition party has opposed the results, alleging that the election was full of irregularities, and demanded an independent commission be established to investigate them.

 
"We have to prepare all kinds of measures to demand justice for the people,” Sam Rainsy told reporters after leaving the Phnom Penh International Airport.

"The whole world knows that CNRP won the election and the whole world will help CNRP to expose the truth," he said.

Cambodia has been in political stalemate after the polling day and the Cambodian Government has deployed armed forces and military tanks in Phnom Penh capital and its surrounding provinces, in what it claims “to maintain social stability and orders”, after the opposition party repeatedly threatened to hold mass demonstrations to protest the election results.