The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is set to hold a two-day extraordinary meeting of its Central Committee in July to evaluate commune council election outcomes and prepare to lay out strategies for the 2023 parliamentary election.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan told The Post on June 8 that he had not received the agenda yet, but expected that the focus of the meeting would be evaluating and drawing on experience of the outcomes to set work directions ahead of the national elections.
“The recent election figures are positive indicators and we evaluate that the elections were a success for the Cambodian people. They expressed their will to elect the CPP, which has strong political programmes to serve the nation and help the people grow further,” he said.
The spokesman said it would inevitably be important to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign and assess the victory the CPP earned at the commune elections.
He added that any foibles were not part of the CPP’s platform, but those of a small number of low-knowledge officials who had incorrectly interpreted party policy.
“Because we know that the hundreds of thousands of CPP officials do not share the same knowledge, implementation of the party political programmes has sometimes turned out to be different. The CPP will draw on its experience and improve those who are inactive,” he said.
Cambodian Institute for Democracy president Pa Chanroeun said the meeting is very much an internal one for the ruling party, and he was yet to receive detailed information about what would be discussed. He expected the focus of the meeting to be on how the election outcomes will affect policy.
“Overall, the meeting will likely review the party’s participation in the commune council elections as well as reflect on the outcomes. I imagine some time will be given to planning a strategy for next year’s general election,” he said.
Chanroeun said it appeared that the CPP policy had not changed, even at the commune level. Implementation of some key programmes appeared to be lacking, he noted.
“For example, the principles of ‘safe villages-communes’, environmental protection, and solving problems at the local level promptly do not seem to have been completed. The problem came from a lack of monitoring the real-world responses of the party to its own promises, as stated in its programmes,” he said.
Eysan said the CPP had a great deal of experience and that was the reason it earned the support of the people. The CPP’s political programmes were good and served the interests of the people and the nation.
CPP officials are honest with the public, and the party has had many brilliant achievements across the country, from the city to rural areas, he added.
“All of these factors meant the public could clearly see that our programmes are correct and respond to the interests of the nation and the people … This is why we won in a landslide, with the support of so many members of the public,” he said.
