A vote to elect the new leader of the Sam Rainsy Party may end up being a simple show of hands to approve the only person interested in the job, acting president Kong Korm said yesterday.

The party will return to its old party headquarters on Sothearos Boulevard in Phnom Penh to hold a congress on November 2, Korm said, where members will discuss the party’s direction and elect a new leader.

Since Sam Rainsy left the party to lead the newly formed Cambodian National Rescue Party – a merger between the SRP and the Human Rights Party – Korm has appeared the only likely successor.

“I do not believe anyone else wants to stand as president,” he said.

“I will lead this party until 2018 to ensure elected members maintain their positions on commune councils, on provincial/municipal councils and in the senate.”

After that time, he said, the party will fold. HRP lawmaker Ou Chanrith said party president Kem Sokha and other HRP and SRP members would resign from their parties and the National Assembly six months before next year’s national election to focus on the new party.

“We will be out all together, but our positions as lawmakers will still be the same,” he said.

Tep Nytha, National Election Committee secretary-general, said a party could appoint their own replacement for a lawmaker who resigned within six months of their term ending.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meas Sokchea at [email protected]m