Phnom Penh: Sam Rainsy, who is living abroad to escape arrest from the Cambodian court, verbally attacked his partner Kem Sokha for the first time after he did not go to the polls last Sunday. He called Kem Sokha "seriously wronged and hoped that Kem Sokha would wake up."

 In an interview with Radio Free Asia on 9 June, Sam Rainsy described the non-participation in the 5th Mandate Commune/Sangkat Council Election 2022 as a mistake for democrats. He reprimanded Kem Sokha to wake up.

Sam Rainsy said: "Kem Sokha made a statement saying that he did not go to the polls because he did not see any party he liked, and so, he did not go to the polls; which means that he did not like the CPP as well as the Candlelight party. He likened the CPP as the Candlelight party and vice versa and that he did not like them. What he said was so wrong [...] Sorrowful, I hope he’s reminded that the Candlelight party is still much better than the CPP."

Recent developments seem to indicate that former CNRP leaders have reached a crossroads. During the hearing on 8 June, Kem Sokha informed the Chamber that the Candlelight Party was Sam Rainsy's ideology and that the relationship on behalf of the Democratic Alliance under the CNRP umbrella is no longer the same because now Sam Rainsy has gone out to support the Candlelight Party that he has founded.

Kem Sokha's chief of staff, Muth Chantha, wrote on his Facebook page on Friday 10 June, that Sam Rainsy was washing his shame, using Kem Sokha as an excuse. He said that the results that the Candlelight Party received in 2022 were the result of the betrayal of its allies.

Muth Chantha wrote: "The words of Sam Rainsy, who shouted like a rabid dog, tried to clean himself so that the Cambodian people would not execute [him] like a mad dog. However, the Cambodian people have already sentenced him and the Candlelight Party in the 5 June 2022 election, but the Supreme Court has yet to convict the Candlelight Party for violating the amendments to the Law on Political Parties on the Commune/Sangkat Council Election and the Supreme Court’s decision on the dissolution of the CNRP dated 16 November 2017."

The 5th Commune/Sangkat Council Election was held on Sunday, 5 June, with 17 parties competing for 11,622 Commune/Sangkat seats nationwide from 1,652 Communes. The preliminary results released by the NEC show that more than 7.3 million people went to vote for the election, equivalent to more than 80% of the 9.2 million registered voters. The result of the vote count showed that the CPP is still the party that receives overwhelming support from the people.