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Cambodian PM says no early national election in 2018

Xinhua, August 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that there will be no early national election in 2018 because the political agreement on July 22, 2014 between him and opposition leader Sam Rainsy did not state such an early vote.

"The next national election will be on schedule -- on Sunday in the fourth week of July 2018, there will be no early election because the political agreement on July 22 did not state an early election," he said in a speech during the inauguration ceremony of a China-funded Takhmau Bridge here.

The prime minister acknowledged that he used to verbally agree with Sam Rainsy, president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), on April 9, 2014 to hold the next election in February 2018, five months earlier than the schedule, but during the political negotiations on July 22, 2014, the CNRP leader did not include the point in the agreement.

"All old and new parties can prepare themselves for the July 2018 national election," he said.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen, who has been in power for 30 years, warned that the country would fall into instability again if the future ruling party was not his Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

"Peace is very important for the country. I still continue to say that besides the leadership of the CPP, the other parties will bring instability," he said.

Hun Sen and Sam Rainsy struck a political agreement on July 22, 2014 that saw the opposition CNRP end its 10-month boycott of parliament following the disputed election in 2013. Under the deal, Hun Sen agreed to CNRP's proposals for electoral reform and power sharing in the parliament.

Dispute between the two parties have heated up in the last few months after CNRP's lawmakers repeatedly accused the government of using fake maps to demarcate border line with Vietnam.

However, Hun Sen said the maps his government is using to demarcate border line with Vietnam are authentic ones, which were deposited at the United Nations in 1964. Endi