Elections

Cambodia’s ruling and opposition parties returned to the negotiating table Tuesday in Phnom Penh seeking to end a political impasse over disputed elections. The two sides met for three hours at the National Assembly, the legislative body boycotted by the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) ...

Members of a party unable to garner a single seat in the National Assembly at July’s national election will hold undersecretaries of state positions in at least 28 different government ministries. In an interview yesterday, Council of Ministers spokesman Phay Siphan told the post that the ...

A senior US State Department official visiting the kingdom said yesterday that any solution to the current political deadlock would have to come from within Cambodia and not from foreign powers. Scot Marciel, principle deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen signed off on a directive last week to trans­fer 11 government bodies, previously overseen by Cabinet Minister Sok An, to relevant ministries and institutions, further cutting the expansive portfolio of the deputy prime minister in the wake of July’s national election. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday said the next Phnom Penh governor should come from the Cambodia National Rescue Party, citing his party’s election dominance in the capital. The idea – floated in a speech to hundreds of commune and district council members – came ahead of ...

It was the bloodiest battle since Waterloo. Yet the carnage wrought 150 years ago by the Italian and French troops, fighting under Napoleon III, and the forces of the Austrian Hungarian Empire, was overshadowed by its aftermath. While 30,000 had died on the battlefield, more than 40,000 ...

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said Friday that talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party over political dispute will be resumed on Tuesday next week. “Officials at working group levels of the two parties will meet on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Parliament ...

The U.N.’s envoy for freedom of as­sembly on Tuesday presented a report to the U.N. General Assem­bly that calls for an approach to election monitoring that looks be­yond polling day to assess wheth­er elections in countries such as Cambodia are “free and fair.” The report, compiled ...

At about 10 a.m. Thursday morning, during a press conference at the CNRP’s Phnom Penh headquarters, opposition leader Sam Rainsy dialed the phone number of CPP Interior Minister Sar Kheng and told a few dozen reporters in attendance that he would broadcast their conversation over ...

Cambodia’s opposition said Thursday it is prepared to hold talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party without any preconditions in a fresh bid to end a political deadlock three months after disputed national elections. The move signaled a shift by the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which days earlier had said it ...

Germany’s new ambassador to Cambodia, Joachim Baron von Marschall, said Wednesday during a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong that he hoped the country’s ruling CPP and opposition CNRP would meet to resolve the post-election uncertainty, an official said. “His Excellency [Mr. Baron von Marschall] ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy plans to call CPP Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Thursday to discuss restarting negotiations between the two parties. Mr. Rainsy said that he hoped Mr. Kheng would clarify whether the CPP is unconditionally open to further negotiations, or if the party is ...

More women should be part of any future high-level negotiations between the ruling CPP and opposition CNRP to resolve the current political deadlock, a coalition of women’s rights NGOs said Tuesday in a statement. In a joint statement by more than 20 organizations, the groups criticized ...

Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday that the ruling party was waiting for the opposition to contact them regarding negotiations to break the ongoing political deadlock. CNRP president Sam Rainsy yesterday said his party would “definitely” be contacting the CPP, ...

They can’t talk in the National Assembly, and they can’t talk in the provinces – at least at the parliamentarian level – but a new round of local dialogues held by the National Democratic Institute will see the ruling party and the opposition face off ...

The Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) on Tuesday shared initial findings from a survey carried out across the country in the wake of July’s national election, which found that one-third of the country’s eligible voters could not vote on election day. Laura Thornton, the NDI’s country ...

A 5,000-square-meter plot of land owned by the local Sokimex Group on Phnom Penh’s Street 154, near Wat Ounalom and Kandal market, could be the site of a new, multi-story hotel, the conglomerate’s CEO said Tuesday. Sok Kong, Sokimex CEO, said Tuesday that construction of a ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government as the two sides remained stalled in talks in a deadlock over disputed national elections. The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) said in a public statement that it could not guarantee that any agreements made with Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian ...

Peaceful and constructive dialogue will enable the ruling and opposition parties to “overcome the current impasse”, US ambassador to Cambodia William Todd has said. In a frank column in local media on Sunday, linked to from the US embassy in Phnom Penh’s website, Todd said the ...

As the dispute over July’s national election enters its fourth month, a civil society umbrella organization, the Electoral Reform Alliance (ERA), is due to release a comprehensive report on widespread irregularities recorded during the ballot. The report will be followed by the drafting of a proposed ...

In the prelude to and direct aftermath of July’s national election, local Khmer-language media largely ignored the opposition’s growing street rallies and demonstrations. But during the three days of protests last week, the CNRP was front-page news in all of the major Khmer-language newspapers. Broadcast media also ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the opposition are debating prospects of new talks aimed at ending their political deadlock three months after disputed national elections thrust the country into a crisis. But chances of a fresh meeting between the two sides following ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s wife Bun Rany on Saturday used a Cambodian Red Cross flood relief event in Pailin province to denounce the opposition CNRP’s three-day rally and marches in Phnom Penh last week as part of an effort to “cheat” the people of Cambodia. Ms. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Sunday said that the CNRP would formally appeal to the CPP this week to resume negotiations to end the ongoing political deadlock, but said that the CPP would have to meet the CNRP’s conditions for a new round of talks. “Now ...