News

The US State Department will issue visa restrictions on individuals “involved in undermining democracy in Cambodia”, the Trump administration announced overnight yesterday, following the dissolution of the main opposition party last month and the arrest in September of former opposition leader Kem Sokha. ... ...

In a speech to workers yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen pinned the blame for any damage inflicted on Cambodia’s garment industry by potential economic sanctions squarely on the opposition party. “You must remember clearly that if the purchase orders are reduced, it is all the ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday brushed aside any potential concern over the US cutting funding to the country over the recent dissolution of the opposition CNRP prior to next year’s general election. ... ...

Defence Minister Tea Banh expressed indifference to the threat of international sanctions being levied on government officials and the Cambodian economy on Saturday, while ordering his military to be ready to destroy any attempts at an alleged “colour revolution” or popular demonstration over the arrest ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised CNRP commune officials they can keep their positions once their party is dissolved, so long as they disavow their former party and join the ruling CPP. ... ...

The Senate has approved four amendments to the election laws related to the redistribution of the seats of the CNRP and local councilors if the main opposition party is dissolved. ... ...

“They talk about the multi-party problem, but I want to confirm that when the one party is dissolved, there will be five parties that will replace it. That means that it will go from two parties to six parties in the National Assembly,” Hun Sen ...

An opinion piece published by government mouthpiece Fresh News suggests, among other things, dissolving the Cambodia National Rescue Party and allocating its National Assembly seats to five minor parties, including Funcinpec, which plans to sue for the dissolution of CNRP. ... ...

Transparency International (TI) Cambodia yesterday said that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party appeard to have won 49.4 percent of the nationwide popular vote on June 4 based on the stations it monitored, nearly six percentage points ahead of the CNRP’s 43.2 percent. ... ...

The opposition once again will ask the government to make upcoming voter registration more accessible to an estimated 1 million migrant workers by increasing the number of registration centers near the Thai border. ... ...

The country’s national election body says it has rejected more than half of the 61 complaints it received about the June 4 commune elections, most of them requests by the opposition CNRP for recounts in races it narrowly lost, claiming the complainants missed the deadline. ...

Opposition leader Kem Sokha said in an interview on Saturday that he believed Prime Minister Hun Sen could be compelled to relinquish power if he loses the July 2018 national election and that his party’s task was now to present itself as a group ready ...

After a full recount, the NEC said the results now stood at 2,611 votes to the CPP and 2,609 to the CNRP, handing the commune that was initially won by the opposition to the ruling party. The body said it deliberated on 141 invalid ballots, ...

After nine hours of counting and heated arguments between CPP and CNRP representatives, the national election body had yet to declare the winner of a Svay Rieng province commune where the opposition CNRP is contesting the results of the June 4 local elections, though the ...

A CNRP supporter in Battambang province’s Anlong Lvea village was detained and questioned yesterday for illegally signing official documents meant only for the village chief. ... ...

Four years ago, when the opposition snatched Kampong Cham away from the ruling party in 2013 national elections, it hinted at a deeper shift taking place in what was then the Kingdom’s most populous province. ... ...

CNRP President Kem Sokha on Monday urged supporters of minority political parties not to “waste” votes and instead to join his party as the only credible challenger to the CPP, words dismissed as a false choice by one minor party leader. ... ...

The national election body will today start recounting votes for communes across the country where the winners in June 4’s commune elections were decided by the narrowest of margins. ... ...

The mixed results of the June 4 commune elections may have allowed both major parties to save face, but the opposition’s large gains show it has a serious chance of winning next year’s national election – and that could attract violent backlash from the government, ...

In what one observer said was simply an act of politicking, the opposition CNRP on Thursday said it would push its campaign pledge of giving $500,000 to every commune in the National Assembly. ... ...

With the National Election Committee (NEC) having released preliminary commune election results, parties have begun registering requests for recounts to the body, with one commune each in Svay Rieng and Battambang provinces appearing to have already flipped sides as of yesterday. ... ...

The ruling CPP is losing votes in remote provinces while making up ground on the opposition CNRP in Phnom Penh and surrounding areas, according to election data showing the two major parties cutting into each other’s leads in traditional strongholds. ... ...

The ruling CPP and opposition CNRP have filed a combined 39 official complaints over the running of Sunday’s commune elections while independent observers continue to criticize pre-election conditions that they say likely compromised the poll.Hang Puthea, spokesman for the National Election Committee (NEC), said the ...

Opposition spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that if any of the CNRP’s more than 400 new commune chiefs who won office on Sunday cannot follow through on the party’s campaign pledges, they will “give up” their positions.Sovann said the Cambodia National Rescue Party had made ...