The Cambodia National Rescue Party has officially forwarded party member Soun Rida’s name to the National Election Committee to take over the National Assembly seat in Kampong Speu vacated by the death of lawmaker Pen Sovann.

The party, in a letter sent on Tuesday, asked the NEC to send Rida’s candidacy to the National Assembly, CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday.

He added that the party decided not to stray from the list of candidates for the province submitted ahead of the 2013 national elections. “The NEC will automatically send his name to the National Assembly and there can be no objections according to the law,” he said.

The CNRP won three seats in Kampong Speu in 2013 – Sok Umsea and Nuth Rumdoul are the other sitting lawmakers. Rida, a 45-year-old doctor who entered politics in 2002 with Funcinpec, failed to get elected to parliament in 2008, after which he moved to Kem Sokha’s Human Rights Party in 2009.

“I have little experience in being a member of parliament, and that will be a challenge for me,” Rida said yesterday.