An announcement from the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) that its "acting president" Sam Rainsy would return to the Kingdom on November 9 was dismissed on Sunday as "political warfare".

The CNRP made the announcement on Friday after a permanent committee meeting chaired by Rainsy, who is in Australia, where spoke to supporters there about his decision.

“I am honestly telling you, brothers and sisters, that yesterday I made the most important decision of my life that I must return to our homeland. [I go] to help Cambodians at all cost,” he said, adding that the situation was right for him to cease campaigning from overseas and return home.

Ou Chanrith, the former CNRP lawmaker who has been appointed the spokesperson for the Rainsy return working group, said on Sunday that November 9 was chosen because it was the Cambodian Independence Day and commemorated the achievements of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk in ending French colonisation of the Kingdom.