The remaining officials of the Nationalist Party are calling on their one-time leaders to follow the lead of former NP deputy secretary-general Pheng Heng in defecting from the Funcinpec fold back to the NP, the party said yesterday.

New NP secretary-general Muth Chantha, appointed at the party congress last week, said that representatives at the congress and councillors from 22 cities, provinces and districts are urging former leaders of the NP – most of whom defected en masse last year to fellow royalists Funcinpec in what some saw as a de facto merger – to come back home to ensure the independence of the royalist cause.

“Ninety per cent [of NP members] have demanded [former NP leaders] reconsider their alliance with Funcinpec,” Chantha said. “They want the party to have its independence, and dare to say what the truth is.”

While Chantha did not explicitly mention the Cambodian People’s Party, Funcinpec has been the junior partner in a coalition with the ruling party for years.