PHNOM PENH, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodia's Interior Ministry official said on Wednesday that the main opposition party's congress elevating Kem Sokha to the post of the party's president earlier this month is illegal.
Prak Sam Oeun, chief of the interior ministry's administration department, said the ministry did not recognize Kem Sokha as the new president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) because the party congress electing him on March 2 violated a party's internal rule which required an 18-month waiting period.
"The CNRP's congress to elect its leadership was illegal," he told reporters after a meeting with a group of CNRP officials led by the party's Vice President Eng Chhay Eang.
He did not say what next action the ministry would take if the CNRP leader is not changed.
The CNRP said in a statement after the meeting that it would try to find a proper solution to the matter.
Kem Sokha was elected by the party's extraordinary congress on March 2, just three weeks after his long-serving predecessor Sam Rainsy stepped down due to "personal reasons."
Rainsy, 68, has been living in self-exile in France since November 2015 to avoid a seven-year imprisonment for defamation and incitement.
The Southeast Asian country is gearing up for two major elections - the commune election on June 4, 2017 and the national election on July 29, 2018.
