The CPP’s deputy chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Central Committee Say Chhum. Photo Supplied
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) Central Committee has appointed party commune chiefs as deputy heads of its commune committees and members of party committees at district and town levels.
The directive, signed by the CPP’s deputy chairman of the Permanent Committee of the Central Committee Say Chhum and issued on January 17, only targeted communes that the CPP had won during the 2017 Commune Council elections.
“Commune chiefs who do not hold a position in the party’s commune committee will be appointed as the committee’s deputy heads and included as members of the party committees at district and town level,” said the directive.
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan declined to comment on the appointments and referred questions to the party committee in the capital instead.
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Pa Socheatvong, the CPP committee chairman for Phnom Penh, said on Tuesday that the decision was within the party’s internal affairs and does not affect the government.
He said some party commune chiefs have not yet been integrated into its district and commune committees upon their election to the role.
Including them, said Socheatvong, would cause a conflict with the existing positions held by other party members who formerly held the commune chief’s role and currently had no position in the communes.
“The new commune chiefs do not have leadership positions yet at the commune party committees. The directive ordered us to appoint them as deputy chiefs of the party committees at the commune level, and also include them as members of the district party committees,” he said.
Kin Phea, the director-general of the International Relations Institute at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said on Tuesday that commune chiefs from the CPP had to be included in the ranks of the party’s commune and district committees.
The commune chiefs, he said, were elected by the people. However, their power would remain limited if not appointed to a higher position in the party.
“Some previous commune chiefs had become heads of commune party committees but were not popular among the people. So the party put others who were more popular and they were elected as chiefs. But they held lower positions in the party.
“So, I think the decision [to include them in the party committee] is the right move. The people elected their party, so they must have a position in the party,” Phea said.
