Hak Kosal, left, handed a list of Senate Election observers to the Phnom Penh Provincial Election Committee on 30 January, a day before being arrested. (Supplied)

An ongoing crackdown on political opposition members intensified yesterday with two additional arrests of opposition members, as the government continues to jail political opponents ahead of the February Senate Elections.

Ma Chinda, head of the Candlelight Party’s youth movement in Phnom Penh’s Daun Penh district, was arrested on 31 January around the time of a scheduled Candlelight Party meeting in the capital. Hak Kosal, an opposition political activist, was also arrested that day. Kosal had submitted a list of election observers for the Senate Election on behalf of the Khmer Will Party (KWP) to the Phnom Penh Provincial Election Committee (PEC) just a day prior.

Both men were charged with "forgery" and "use of a forged document", and face a prison term of 1 to 3 years if convicted.

The KWP formed a coalition with Candlelight late last year, after the latter party was arbitrarily banned from participating in the Senate Elections by the NEC over the party lacking an original copy of a registration document. Candlelight was banned from taking part in the 2023 National Election on the same grounds. Family members reported that both men were being interviewed at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court as of this morning.

These arrests followed two additional arrests of opposition politicians last month. Khem Chanvannak, acting head of Candlelight’s Phnom Penh operations, and Chhay Chinda, an activist with the party’s women's movement, were arrested on 15 January over forgery charges. Chanvannak faces 1 to 3 years in prison over charges of using forged documents, while Chinda faces 5 to 10 years over charges of forging public documents. They are both being held in pre-trial detention.

This post was updated to include information on charges.