Government

The government is preparing legislation aimed at ensuring tighter control over the nation’s pawnshops to ensure professionalism in a sector that has grown rapidly and lacks a supervisory framework. ...

The government has started stripping members of the Khmer National United Party of their state positions, as part of what KNUP officials have said is an effort to pressure them to abandon their leader, Nhek Bun Chhay, a former top military commander, and join the ...

Phnom Penh’s city bus municipal public transit system will be adding five bus routes to its existing network in mid-July, City Hall spokesman Met Measpheakdey said yesterday. ...

The government has approved a new round of mass military promotions, elevating 40 officers to the rank of brigadier general and 16 people to major general status. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) on Monday said it would not pursue immediate legal action against Facebook page owners it accused of spreading “inciting” news about its work, but would take unspecified action if false accusations continued. ...

Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng announced yesterday that this year’s round of garment sector minimum wage negotiations would begin in July, with unionists cautiously optimistic that next year’s national elections could benefit their cause despite calls from Sam Heng not to “politicise” the process. ...

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. ...

Cambodian immigration officer Leang Piseth, who is detained in Thailand on suspicion of smuggling weapons, is a relative by marriage of Defence Minister Tea Banh, as well as of recently reassigned Koh Kong Provincial Governor Bun Leut and retired high-ranking Police General Tham Sann, The ...

The next Senate elections will be held on January 14, according to a directive issued on Friday and ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who noted earlier this month that his party’s performance at the June 4 commune elections means it will almost definitely win ...

Cambodian-American community activists and analysts have said that the recent local elections that saw the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party win a large share of the vote was a positive development for Cambodian democracy. ...

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 ...

Four officials have been elevated to become governors of three provinces and Phnom Penh, including controversial Deputy Phnom Penh Governor Khuong Sreng, who will take over leadership of the capital from retiring current Governor Pa Socheatvong. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) has asked the government to take legal action against two social media users for posting “inciting news” about the June 4 commune elections it claims dishonored the body.According to the statement dated Tuesday, the NEC called on “relevant institutions” to ...

Problems continue to grow for Khmer National United Party President Nhek Bun Chhay in the wake of the prime minister’s decision to terminate his role as a government adviser, with at least two members of his group defecting to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party in ...

The Council of Ministers yesterday ended the ban on the return of former opposition leader Sam Rainsy, an apparent reaction to the latter’s comments the night before on a radio broadcast vowing to come back if the restrictions were dropped. “The government has decided to ...

Ballot recounts on Wednesday secured the opposition CNRP two more commune wins—one each in Battambang and Kompong Thom provinces—a day after the first of 40 contested communes in the June 4 local elections swung to the CPP. Nguon Kolboth, a CPP representative who was at ...

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. ...