Cambodian court to rule on opposition party's dissolution

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Cambodia's Supreme Court on Thursday began its final session to decide whether to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), thus ensuring victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) in next year's general election.

The government-filed lawsuit against the CNRP is widely seen as Hun Sen's final bid to checkmate his competition. Cambodian riot police blocked streets around the Supreme Court ahead of the ruling, as rights groups warned a guilty verdict would strip 2018 elections of credibility.

If the court rules for dissolution, 118 members of the opposition party will also be banned from politics. More than half of CNRP's 55 lawmakers have fled the country in recent weeks, fearing arrest after their leader Kem Sokha was thrown into a remote border prison on treason charges.

Police officers block a street near the Supreme Court during a hearing to decide whether to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, November 16, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Such a ruling would leave "no credible political opposition in Cambodia" for the first time since 1993, one senior diplomat based in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh told Reuters.

In that year a UN-run election produced a shaky coalition between Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen.

"The processes in the early nineties left Cambodia with a lively civil society and the freest press in Southeast Asia and there is a possibility of a lot of that going," said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to comment.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen arrives at the celebration marking the 64th anniversary of the country's independence from France in Phnom Penh, Cambodia November 9, 2017. /Reuters Photo

'2018 Vote would be meaningless'

The allegation against the CNRP – conspiring with foreigners to stage a revolution – could see over a hundred politicians banned from office for five years. That would be a crushing blow to an opposition movement that has been battered by legal attacks since it nearly unseated Hun Sen in the last national election in 2013.

Mu Sochua, a senior CNRP politician who slipped out of the country last month, told AFP over text message that the party's dissolution would herald "the end of true democracy in Cambodia."

"Elections in 2018 will be meaningless without the CNRP," she said.

Cambodia's National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Kem Sokha casts his vote during elections in June 2017. /Reuters Photo

Meanwhile, Hun Sen's government has already passed legal amendments that allow election authorities to redistribute seats or local posts held by a dissolved party.

On the eve of the court hearing US-based Human Rights Watch urged judges to "resist government pressure" to dissolve the embattled party.

Hun Sen claims to have brought much needed peace and stability to an impoverished country that was ravaged by decades of civil war, but critics say endemic corruption and rights abuses have flourished under his watch.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters