PRIME Minister Hun Sen launched an attack against his political opponents Wednesday, saying "ghosts" out for the Pchum Ben festival would come to threaten their lives.

"The ghost are around them and will take them along," Hun Sen told a few hundred supporters during the inauguration of a pagoda in the Kirivong district of Takeo province.

"[The opposition leaders] want to be the prime minister, but they have never had an opportunity, and it will be impossible," Hun Sen said. "They have had no ability to work, but they are accusing us of corruption."

Yim Sovann, spokesman for the Sam Rainsy Party, said the prime minister's remarks were part of a "political campaign" aimed at strengthening his power. Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha told the Post that he wasn't interested in reacting to the speech.