Japan Press Weekly

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2024 January 31 - February 6 [JCP]

JCP Secretariat Head Koike meets with Cambodian opposition party head

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira (House of Councilors) on February 3 met with visiting Teav Vannol, president of the Cambodian opposition party “Candlelight Party (CLP)”, at the JCP head office.

Vannol said that CLP officials and citizens who are critical of the present Cambodian government were arrested one after another, and that surveillance cameras were installed to monitor his home. He told Koike that the CLP is hoping to bring JCP attention to the situation in Cambodia.

Koike in response said that freedom of speech and fair elections are a basis of democracy, and that serious abuses of human rights are impermissible.

Due to various regulations, no candidate was allowed to run in the 2023 general election on a CLP ticket. The CLP has no parliamentary seat but is the largest opposition party in Cambodia with more than 2,000 local assemblymembers.