Mam Sonando to return to politics

Mam Sonando talking to reporters (Photo: Vannara, RFI)

15 Dec 2009
By Leang Delux
Radio France Internationale
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
On Tuesday 15 December, Mam Sonando, the owner of Beehive Radio station, told reporters about his wish to join a democratic party. Mam Sonando wants to see the merger between SRP and HRP. However, if this cannot be done, he will join Kem Sokha’s HRP party.

At a press conference held on Tuesday morning, Mam Sonando, the owner of the popular Beehive Radio station, indicated that he will enter the political fray in preparation for the upcoming election. However, Mam Sonando indicated that he will not form a new party and he will join a party that is based on democratic principles. Providing further details, Mam Sonando said that he wanted to see the SRP and HRP merged together, and he was referring to this merger as the democratic basis. Mam Sonando added that if the two parties still could not merge with each other as he had called for in the past, then he will join Kem Sokha’s HRP party instead.

Kem Sokha once again welcomed Mam Sonando’s wish. Regarding the merger of the two parties, Kem Sokha claimed that the HRP’s stance is to wait for a final decision by the SRP still. According to Kem Sokha, working groups from both parties have agreed on a number of issues already, such as maintaining a single candidate list for the upcoming commune election. However, the only issue still missing is the means to merge the two parties together. Kem Sokha declared that he proposed to have a new name for the merged parties, and that if this can be done sooner, the better it will be.

There seems to be intense care from the SRP. Yim Sovann, SRP spokesman, clearly indicated that the SRP had not thought about the merging of the two parties yet. However, regarding having a single list of candidates for the commune election in 2012, he is not changing this position.