New political party unveiled in Cambodia to contest in 2018 elections

A handful of human rights activists and social researchers on Sunday jointly formed a political party to contest in the 2018 national elections although a political analyst said that small parties are hard to win even a seat.

Former director of the Community Legal Education Center Yeng Virak, social researcher Kem Ley, and Yang Saing Koma, president of the agriculture organization CEDAC, have worked together since late last year towards the formation of the Grassroots Democracy Party (GDP). "The party will file its application with the Ministry of Interior on Monday (Aug. 3) to form an official political party," GDP's newly-elected president Yeng Virak said in a press briefing at the party's headquarters in Phnom Penh's Sen Sok district.

The application will include the thumbprints and names of 4,600 supporters.

GDP's chief of finance Por Setha said "The party's political trend is neutral, not bias to either the opposition party or the ruling party".

In the last elections in 2013, only two major parties, Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) led by Sam Rainsy, won the parliamentary seats. The CPP gained 68 seats as the CNRP earned the remaining 55 seats.

A political analyst predicted that minor parties will be hard to win even a seat in the 2018 national elections, but may split the vote of the CNRP.

"This new party (GDP) can mobilize its support through social networks that it has established. However, it is difficult for small parties to win any seat unless they just focus on certain agenda and particular groups in specific regions or zones," Chheang Vannarith, chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, told Xinhua on Sunday.

Last month, self-exiled dissident and recently-pardoned terrorist plotter Sourn Serey Ratha successfully registered his Khmer Power Party at the Cambodia's Ministry of Interior.

Fled Cambodia to the United States in 2007, Ratha, who was convicted and sentenced in absentia in January this year to seven years in prison by a Cambodian court for inciting, plotting an attack and obstructing elections in 2013, was pardoned by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni last month at the request of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Chheang Vannarith said the presence of the Khmer Power Party will not change the political landscape in Cambodia before the 2018 general elections, but it may draw support from the " extremist group".