Pracheachon
|
People's Group
ក្រុមប្រជាជន |
|
|---|---|
| Leader |
Non Suon Keo Meas Penn Yuth |
| Founded | 1954 |
| Dissolved | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| Ideology | Socialism |
| Political position | Left wing |
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism |
The Krom Pracheachon (Khmer: ក្រុមប្រជាជន, "People's Group"), often referred to simply as Pracheachon, was a Cambodian political party that contested in parliamentary elections in 1955, 1958 and 1972.
For much of its existence the party was a legal front organisation for the clandestine Communist Party of Kampuchea, then known as the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party.
The Pracheachon came into existence as a result of the Geneva Accords of 1954. This guaranteed Cambodia's independence and neutrality, with parliamentary elections to be held the following year. Many of the Cambodians fighting for independence (notably members of the United Issarak Front) had been associated with the Viet Minh, who now agreed to withdraw their units from Cambodia: a large number of Khmer leftists, led by veteran Issarak Son Ngoc Minh, departed for Hanoi, where they were to remain for the next twenty years.
Those leftists who remained were encouraged to form a legal political party to contest elections: this was the Krom Pracheachon, which had a socialist platform. The Communist Party itself (led by Tou Samouth and Sieu Heng, and including later prominent figures such as Saloth Sar (Pol Pot) and Ieng Sary) continued as a purely clandestine organisation.
The Pracheachon was led by Non Suon, Keo Meas and Penn Yuth, all former Issaraks. It adopted the symbol of a plough.
The Cambodian elections of 1955 were the first in which the Krom Pracheachon took part. Due to severe harassment of its members by forces loyal to the Sangkum party of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the Pracheachon was able to field only 35 candidates, winning 31,034 votes in total and gaining no seats.
According to the historian Ben Kiernan, Sihanouk later appeared to admit that many districts had in fact voted for socialist candidates, even when the official result showed them receiving few or no votes.
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