FORMER vendors at Siem Reap’s Phsar Leu market are calling on provincial authorities to sack the market’s director, accusing him of mismanagement.

Eang Saruon, a representative of the vendors, said they have sent a written complaint to provincial officials urging them to remove Sang Naren from his position.

The vendors say they do not trust the director after he decided in February to remove stalls stationed outside the market in order to construct new ones.

“The market director took over the street vendors around the market to sell their spaces to other vendors,” Eang Saruon said. “But this affected the vendors, who lost their [spaces].”

Sang Naren could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Roughly 100 vendors who had been stationed around the market ended up being evicted, with authorities saying they needed room to make way for parking.

“This site should be used for parking cars, motorbikes and bicycles,” Oeun Pov, deputy governor of Siem Reap town, said at the time.

Eang Saruon said he was not optimistic that the new complaint would be addressed, because authorities did not heed an earlier request to halt the eviction.

“The provincial governor promised to resolve our problem, but I do not believe they can do this because those street vendors have already been kicked out,” he said.

Mao Vuthy, the deputy governor of Siem Reap province, said officials planned to address the issue, but would not do so until May.

“We will resolve this problem after the end of the Royal Ploughing ceremony,” he said, referring to the May 2 holiday.