Candlelight Party supporters gather during a Communal Election rally in June 2022.

The Constitutional Council today upheld a decision barring the Candlelight Party from competing in the July 2023 National Election, finalising the forcible exclusion of Cambodia’s main opposition party from the polls over a missing registration document.

The council’s decision affirmed the National Election Committee (NEC)’s refusal on 15 May to register Candlelight for this year’s national election. The NEC alleged that Candlelight failed to produce an original party registration document, which Candlelight claims was confiscated by authorities during a raid on the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) headquarters after that party’s forcible dissolution in 2017.

The NEC’s refusal came despite the election body approving Candlelight to run in the 2022 Commune Elections.

On 19 May, Candlelight appealed the NEC’s decision to the Constitutional Council – a nine-member body, of which five members sit on the Central Committee of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP). After that body’s decision today, there is no further appeal available.

The Candlelight Party emerged as the main political opposition after the forced dissolution of the CNRP in 2017. Candlelight won 2,198 commune councillor seats in the 2022 Commune Elections, garnering more than 1.6 million votes and coming in second to the CPP.

The third-placed party, FUNCINPEC, won 19 seats.

The Constitutional Council also ruled today that another party, the Khmer United Great Nation Party (KUGNP), would not be allowed to compete in the 2023 National Election. KUGNP did not compete in the 2022 Commune Elections.