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Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy to miss 2013 polls

Sam Rainsy, President of Cambodia’s Sam Rainsy Party (SRP), will not be able to run in the 2013 elections if he does not return to serve two years in prison for uprooting markers on the border area with Vietnam, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.
Sam Rainsy, President of Cambodia’s SamRainsy Party (SRP), will not be able to run in the 2013 elections if hedoes not return to serve two years in prison for uprooting markers onthe border area with Vietnam, Prime Minister Hun Sen said.

The PM made the statement during a graduation ceremony at the Royal University of Phnom Penh on Feb. 24.

Sam Rainsy was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 60 millionrien (about 15,000 USD) by Svay Rieng provincial court on Jan. 27. Hewas convicted of destruction of property and racial incitement inconnection with uprooting markers of the Vietnam-Cambodia joint bordercommittee on Oct. 25, 2009.

Meanwhile, about 200 SRP members in Preah Vihear province on Feb. 24announced to defect the SRP and join the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)because of a lack in trust in the SRP’s leader.

Ten days earlier, the CPP admitted 73 members of opposition parties, 30 percent of them were SRP members, in Campot province.

Since 2008, about 700 opposition party members in Campot province have joined the CPP./.
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