Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Sam Rainsy Party

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Leader
  
Kong Korm

Founded
  
June 1995

Political position
  
Centre

Founder
  
Sam Rainsy

Headquarters
  
Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Sam Rainsy Party

Ideology
  
Khmer nationalism Liberal democracy Populism

The Sam Rainsy Party (Khmer: គណបក្ស សម រង្ស៊ី; SRP) is a personalist liberal party in Cambodia. The party was a member of the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, Liberal International, and the Alliance of Democrats.

The Sam Rainsy Party, founded in 1995 as the Khmer Nation Party and given its current name in 1998, constitutes the official opposition to the ruling Cambodian People's Party. Since the decline of the junior coalition partner, Funcinpec, in the 2008 National Assembly elections, the Sam Rainsy Party is now considered the second largest party in Cambodia. It is the largest opposition party in Cambodia.

The Sam Rainsy Party won 15 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly in the 1998 elections, 24 seats in the 2003 elections, and 26 seats in the 2008 elections with 21% of the vote. The SRP won two seats in the 2006 Senate elections.

In 2009, it formally allied with the Human Rights Party in the Democratic Movement of Change.

In 2008, party activist Tuot Saron was arrested on a charge of "being an accomplice to unlawful confinement". International human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International described the charges as a politically motivated attempt to intimidate other SRP activists. Tuot Saron was released on 26 November 2010, following a Royal Pardon decree.

In the 2012 Cambodian Senate elections, the Sam Rainsy Party gained nine new seats in the Senate. Although it merged with the Human Rights Party to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party, it still remains active due to still having seats in the Senate, with Kong Korm as its leader. It will fully integrate into the CNRP and officially disband in the next Senate elections.

Its motto is "Integrity, Truth, Justice".

References

Sam Rainsy Party Wikipedia