Elections

Civil society leaders on Sunday called on the country’s two major political parties to scrap plans to ban them from giving media interviews during election campaigns and from issuing statements that “insult” any party. CPP Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin and senior CNRP official Kuoy Bunroeun, ...

Independent researcher and founder of the “social network” Khmer for Khmer, Kem Ley, may found as many as 1,000 political parties by the end of 2016. ...

The ruling CPP and opposition CNRP on Friday agreed that civil society groups would be banned from giving media interviews and issuing statements that “insult” political parties or candidates during election campaign periods. ...

CNRP President Sam Rainsy continued the opposition party’s attack on political commentator Kem Ley’s “Khmer for Khmer” reform group Wednesday, telling supporters that the group is a creation of the ruling CPP. ...

The ruling Cambodian People’s Party is pushing for the campaign period of the next national election to be cut to just 14 days, less than half of the 30-day period currently allocated for campaigning.​ ...

Pilot tests for Cambodia’s new computerised voter registration system are off to a rough start after one commune refused yesterday to participate in the trials. The $17 million system, which uses computers to record voters’ thumbprints and photos, and issues voter card printouts, was slated to ...

Prince Norodom Ranariddh on Saturday appealed to deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha to return to the Funcinpec party, before issuing a warning to women not to trust the prince due to the “danger” that he would present to them. Speaking at a special meeting of Funcinpec ...

Prince Norodom Ranariddh said on Monday that his return to lead Funcinpec Party is to re-unite royalists. ...

Cambodian Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a son of late King Norodom Sihanouk, said Monday that his return to be the president of the royalist Funcinpec Party is to reunite the royalists and Sihanoukists. The prince also said that the party will work closely with Prime Minister Hun ...

Ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and Cambodia National Rescue agreed to allow factory workers to vote in the area where they work. The agreement came after a meeting Friday between the two parties’ working group, discussing amendments of election law. ...

The government on Thursday formally accepted a request from Cambodia’s top Buddhist monks to consider drafting a law that would ban the country’s more than 50,000 monks from voting. At the end of the meeting Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An, the minister of ...

Testing of a computerized voter registration system will begin next month in the hopes of addressing flaws in the current system, which remains susceptible to election fraud, a coalition of NGOs working to promote democracy in the country announced Thursday. The Electoral Reform Alliance (ERA) has ...

The great supreme patriarchs of Cambodia’s two Buddhist sects yesterday urged the government to enact a legal “procedure” that would not only forbid monks from participating in political activities, but would also forbid them from exercising their right to vote. At the 23rd National Monk Congress ...

“Khmer for Khmer” founder Kem Ley said Wednesday that his political reform group plans to create 25 political parties early next year as part of a pilot program to assess the viability of such micro-parties before the next elections. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday suggested eventually extending a controversial new provision banning dual nationals from sitting on the National Election Committee (NEC) to also apply to the National Assembly and executive branch, but said there is no pressing reason to do so. Speaking at ...

Deputy Prime Minister Bin Chhin and senior opposition official Kuoy Bunroeun said Monday that the CPP and CNRP are still at odds over whether to increase the number of National Assembly seats before the next election. The election reform working group composed of members of the ...

A deal between the ruling party and opposition in July may have ended a yearlong political deadlock, but some rights workers now worry the compromises will not be worth the long-term costs to Cambodian democracy. But Ou Virak, chairman of the board at the Cambodian ...

Election watchdogs have called on the ruling and opposition parties to reconsider a restriction on dual nationals serving as members of the overhauled National Election Committee.​ ...

Election monitors and other organizations in Cambodia are urging the country’s political parties to accept a number of principals in the reform of the National Election Committee. The Cambodian People’s Party and Cambodia National Rescue Party came to a compromise in July and have been working ...

Although Prime Minister Hun Sen and opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Friday agreed that no member of an overhauled National Election Committee could have multiple nationalities, it remains unclear whether rights activist and triple national Pung Chhiv Kek is out of the running for the ...

Political analyst Kem Ley plans to create a diverse set of independent political parties in the new year, tackling what he says is an autocratic “disease” infecting both the ruling party and the opposition. Using his newly founded “social network” Khmer for Khmer as a springboard, ...

Cambodian prime minister and his political opponent have finalized the details of an electoral reform plan, but some were met with criticism Saturday amid fears the election body will remain stacked with employees loyal to the ruling party. The Cambodia Daily reported that both Premier Hun ...

One of CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha’s personal assistants on Thursday said the deputy opposition leader “cannot lead anyone” after Mr. Sokha ridiculed a phone call that she claims to have made warning him about a threat from the fledgling “Khmer for Khmer” reform group. Answering ...

Lawmakers from the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) would consider boycotting parliament again if Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party continues to delay an agreement on electoral reform, according to CNRP deputy leader Kem Sokha. The two parties have reached a deadlock in talks on forging ...