Government

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party has canceled plans for failed local election candidates to be appointed to advisory positions in the government. ...

Human Rights Watch (HRW), long one of the government’s harshest critics, on Tuesday condemned the June 4 commune elections as “neither free nor fair” and called for urgent reforms to safeguard next year’s national election. ...

Economists on Tuesday lambasted the CNRP’s proposal to eliminate the use of U.S. dollars for transactions in the country within one year of a victory in next year’s national elections, saying the policy would be “a disaster” and “impossible.” ...

Despite vows by both major political parties to increase female representation in politics, women made up only a small proportion of commune chiefs chosen in this month’s elections, though some gains were made by the opposition party.   ...

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. ...

As the National Election Committee launched into the recount process for contested communes yesterday, an election watchdog coalition announced it had found that 95 percent of a sample of polling stations’ vote count forms from the election body matched those compiled by the group itself. ...

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. ...

Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak put forward a proposal last week requesting that the World Trade Organization (WTO) share information of bilateral and regional trade agreements with all its members to help smaller economies integrate into global trade markets. ...

Nhek Bun Chhay, president of the Khmer National United Party and former commander of Cambodia’s military under the royalist-led government of the 1990s, was stripped of his role as an adviser to the government and forced to surrender his firearms because he was “no longer ...

The Land Management Ministry hosted a farewell party for residents of Phnom Penh’s iconic but crumbling White Building Saturday, serving up large quantities of noodles and bringing in Buddhist monks to bless the residents before they move. ...

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, ...

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

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. ...

Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn yesterday met with the newly appointed Finnish ambassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven, who is based in Bangkok. “Ms Suikkari-Kleven told the Foreign Minister that some Finnish companies are interested in cooperating with Cambodia to invest in energy and electricity from waste,” Foreign Affairs ...

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. ...

Already looking ahead to 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen has told his Cambodian People’s Party that had Sunday’s commune elections been a national election, they would have won even more National Assembly seats than they did in 2013. ...

About a thousand workers from the Southland garment factory yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Labour to demand intervention from the authorities to force the company to reinstate 10 unionists suspended from work after a strike began earlier this week. ...

The Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries will meet later this month to review progress on the country’s first consumer protection law and formulate a plan to complete the draft legislation, a ministry official said yesterday. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) posted complete preliminary results online on Wednesday evening after receiving missing forms from 344 communes, an official said, with the final tallies from Sunday’s commune elections expected before June 25. ...

Ten union representatives were yesterday suspended from the Southland garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district after more than a thousand workers went on strike to protest the factory’s decisions about time taken off for voting in Sunday’s commune elections. ...