PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has decided to sue a senior official of the Candlelight Party, Son Chhay, demanding 4 billion riel, or about US $1 million, in compensation, after he made comments on a foreign media broadcast in the Khmer language, saying the Commune/Sangkat Council election held on 5 June featured intimidation and vote buying.

In the indictment submitted on Tuesday, 14 June, CPP lawyer, Ky Tech, presented to the court a USB memory stick containing a 2-hour 10-minute and 56-second video clip of an interview conducted by The Cambodia Daily Online Newspaper of Son Chhay that was published on social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. In the interview, Son Chhay raised a number of points that the CPP felt affected the honor the party, such as his comments that, "it is completely controlled by [one] party from top to bottom, they want to do whatever they want," and "the result does not reflect the will of the people, there is intimidation, there is vote buying, there is stealing, here are [the votes] that are left from that."

Moreover, he also stated, "We do not want to compare this to a thief stealing cows, as we say, if a thief steals three cows, why would we allow the thief to steal all five? We explain in easy language, this is the will of the people, some will be eliminated, there is still some will that we can protect, we will take that will, it is ours, we are protesting what is lost, it is normal, we don’t allow them to collect all of the [votes], it is not possible."

The CPP's lawyer considered these allegations to be false, misleading, and made with the intent to impose unintentional guilt and slander the CPP, potentially seriously damaging the party's reputation.

Ky Tech, on behalf of the party's representative lawyer, asked to file a complaint to the court to examine, charge and convict Son Chhay, in accordance with the law, including a demand of four billion riel in compensation.