Former CNRP Lawmaker Gains Political Rehabilitation, Joins CPP

Former CNRP Lawmaker Gains Political Rehabilitation, Joins CPP

Ly Srey Vyna, a physician and former opposition party lawmaker, has joined the ruling Cambodian People’s Party after gaining her political rehabilitation yesterday.

Vyna, once a lawmaker representing Phnom Penh for the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was one of the former 118 CNRP officials who were banned from politics for five years as per the Supreme Court ruling in November 2017, the same month this political party was dissolved by the Supreme Court.

However, King Norodom Sihamoni yesterday issued a royal decree which gave political rehabilitation to Vyna, lifting her ban from politics and allowing her to join a political party, after she submitted an application to Minister of Interior Sar Kheng on November 9.

Vyna’s application, however, coincided with the Ministry of Health’s decision to close her private Ly Srey Vyna clinic in Phnom Penh, in Chamkar Mon district’s Tuol Tumpoung II commune on Sunday, “due to it not being deemed fit to provide health services”, after Tep Pov, a 46-year-old patient reportedly died at the clinic.

In a hand-written letter addressed to Prime Minister Hun Sen, and obtained by Khmer Times yesterday, Vyna asked the Premier to accept her into the CPP.

“Nowadays, I am not a member of any political party, and I am not happy to see some individuals unfairly attacking the Prime Minister from both inside and outside the country,” she wrote. “Therefore, I volunteer to join you to help build the country and unconditionally follow the bright path set by the Prime Minister.”

In her letter, Vyna also expressed her gratitude to Mr Hun Sen’s government for giving her a scholarship to study in France in 1989.

A senior official from the CPP said Vyna’s request to join CPP has already been approved by Mr Hun Sen.

Currently, 14 former members of the court-dissolved CNRP have seen their requests for political rehabilitation granted by the King.