Elections

The Interior Ministry and the National Election Committee have banned all forms of law enforcement from using their power to intimidate or threaten voters during the commune election campaign period.In a joint announcement, the NEC and the ministry said that it was crucial for the ...

Residents of Takeo province’s Trapeang Thom Khang Cheung commune turned out to their local pagoda yesterday to experience something common during elections the world over but rarer in Cambodia: a public debate between the people seeking to govern them. ...

Local residents in Battambang town took part in a political debate organized by U.S. Democracy promotion group, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) on Monday ahead of local elections early next month. Attendees asked prospective candidates questions related to citizen’s concerns over unemployment, migration, ...

The National Election Committee has barred 88 candidates from standing in the commune elections for a variety of odd reasons. Seven parties have had candidates stood down: the CPP, CNRP, Funcinpec, the Khmer National United Party, the Beehive Social Democratic Party, the League for Democracy Party ...

“The CPP encourages all companies, owners of factories to give workers and their staff, particularly those registered to vote in the commune elections, appropriate time off so that they may have a chance to cast their votes,” a letter from the ruling party says. The CPP ...

Political campaigning in Cambodia’s local elections began on Saturday and has so far passed without incident. Cambodians in Phnom Penh on Monday said they hoped that the election could be conducted fairly and free of violence. Sim To, a second-year student at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, ...

Cambodians go to the polls early next month to elect more than 12,000 district officials, but the ballot is also shaping-up as a showdown between the two major parties amid threats of civil war and a crackdown on political dissent in the lead-up to national ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday explained why he will limit his role in commune election campaigning after coming under pressure from his party to help out in Siem Reap. Mr Hun Sen thanked those who wanted to see him campaign in the province but said: “Due ...

The needs of disabled Cambodians have not been taken into account in the forthcoming local elections, a disabilities group has said. Ngin Saoroth, executive director of the Cambodian Disabled People’s Organization (CDPO), told reporters this week that politicians were not putting “the issue of the disabled ...

Two of the country’s biggest garment workers’ unions have asked the government to make factories give their workers three days of paid leave and provide loans for travel expenses to allow them to return to their hometowns to vote in the upcoming local elections. ...

A group accused of rubber-stamping autocratic elections in 2013 said on Tuesday it would return to observe the June 4 commune elections, with the airfare, accommodation and an excursion to Siem Reap province covered by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. ...

A commune chief has filed an official complaint against two Cambodia Daily reporters who interviewed villagers in Ratanakkiri province as part of the newspaper’s commune election coverage, accusing them of arriving “with bad intentions.” ...

The CNRP will cut all ministry budgets by 20 percent if it wins next year’s national election to free up funds to provide $500,000 annually to each commune, the party’s spokesman said on Monday, a proposal dismissed by the ruling party as empty election season ...

A CNRP television spot featuring former party president Sam Rainsy may have been rejected on Monday, but the country’s main opposition has found other ways to promote the exiled leader in its campaigning ahead of the June 4 commune elections.   ...

The National Election Committee (NEC), in an effort to avoid complaints that dogged past elections, has issued specific rules allowing political parties to distribute leaflets inside markets during the commune election campaign period. ...

The prime minister has gone as far as to warn that “civil war” could follow an opposition victory at the polls and equating the fallout to a return of the Khmer Rouge regime. Prime Minister Hun Sen has frequently warned of impending conflict and instability ...

Ink that will be used to mark voters’ fingers during the June 4 commune election is trustworthy, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday, two weeks after the country’s top election committee found that a sample batch of the stainer could be rubbed out with ...

The commander-in-chief of the armed forces on Monday ordered all soldiers to defend “public order” and to fight against potential “color revolutions” on June 4 when voters will elect new commune councilors. ...

After Grassroots Democracy Party (GDP) candidates for the upcoming commune elections took their seats inside the leafy grounds of the party headquarters in Phnom Penh for a pre-election congress on Thursday, they rose to their feet and bowed their heads in remembrance of their founding ...

The campaign for the June 4 commune elections officially began on Saturday morning with opposition CNRP leader Kem Sokha telling supporters that his party’s time had finally come and CPP Senate President Say Chhum similarly pledging an easy victory for the ruling party. ...

Officials yesterday said government-issued media guidelines for election coverage which prohibit the publication of news that affects the country’s “social stability” were just a “reminder” of existing laws, but some NGOs said the issuing of the code of conduct was an act meant to “stifle ...

Opposition leader Kem Sokha said on Saturday his party would shutter the Rural Development Ministry and put the savings towards the goal of funding each of Cambodia’s more than 1,600 commune councils with half a million dollars a year if it wins power in 2018. ...

The CPP has filed a complaint to a commune election committee in Takeo province alleging that a group of CNRP supporters obstructed a ruling party parade of about 400 supporters on Saturday, officials said yesterday. ...

At a procession that drew thousands of supporters in Phnom Penh on Saturday, party president Kem Sokha promised a number of reforms once—not if—his party comes to power next year. ...