The Cambodia Daily

Independent election observers praised Sunday’s running of the nationwide commune elections as largely smooth and peaceful, even while noting a raft of problems, including unauthorized officials at polling sites, intimidated observers and soldiers being brought to vote at some polling stations by the truckload.   ...

A lack of official results did not stop both major political parties from claiming victory in Cambodia’s highest-stakes and highest-turnout local elections to date on Sunday, with the CPP citing its dominance in winning commune chief seats and the CNRP boasting of huge opposition gains ...

Police have summoned the CNRP’s top party boss in Phnom Penh to appear for questioning today about a clash between a motorbike driver and a group of opposition supporters campaigning earlier this week in the capital. ...

Two Cambodia Daily journalists accused of incitement and violating voters’ rights for asking questions in advance of Sunday’s commune elections in Ratanakkiri province will likely be summoned for questioning after Election Day, a provincial court prosecutor said. ...

The Agriculture Ministry will soon adopt a national standard for organic vegetable production to create product consistency and a single yardstick for farmers to work toward, according to officials.A logo that will mark the products as government-approved organics has been designed, and a draft law ...

The CNRP and the CPP will cap off two weeks of commune election campaigning on Friday with daylong processions, to which they expect to draw hundreds of thousands of people through opposite sides of Phnom Penh amid heightened security, party officials said on Tuesday. ...

Land Management Minister Chea Sophara rallied residents of Phnom Penh’s condemned White Building to vote for the CPP on Tuesday, repeating calls he made last month to the apartment block’s homeowners. ...

Amnesty International today accused the ruling CPP of using its grip on the judiciary to systematically harass and intimidate civil society and urged the government to drop cases against opposition activists and human rights defenders. ...

Amnesty International today accused the ruling CPP of using its grip on the judiciary to systematically harass and intimidate civil society and urged the government to drop cases against opposition activists and human rights defenders. ...

Cambodia’s customs department counted less than 1 percent of the sand Singapore reported importing from Cambodia last year, according to trade statistics. The new data is the latest addition to a more than 77 million ton gap from 2007 to last year that the governments ...

Transparency International has pledged a rapid assessment of potential irregularities in Sunday’s commune elections by sending 1,100 observers across Cambodia—including, if needed, by boat and helicopter. ...

Cambodia’s garment factories appear to be ramping up their use of subcontractors, which tend to get the least attention from regulators and raise the most fears of abuse among labor rights groups, according to a report released on Monday. ...

Police in Svay Rieng province on Saturday shut down a training session for 16 observers registered to monitor this Sunday’s commune elections, saying it had not been sanctioned by authorities, according to an organizer. ...

More than 400 Phnom Penh families living along a canal in Meanchey district will be granted land titles after development to the area’s defunct drainage system takes place, officials said. ...

The head of an independent election monitoring group on Thursday criticized the violent rhetoric of Prime Minister Hun Sen and other top government officials in the lead-up to the commune elections, saying it could affect whether voters see the process as free and fair. .. ...

UNHCR, the U.N.’s refugee agency, will question the government over its decision to deny asylum to the majority of Montagnards left in Cambodia, officials said, a month after the group was criticized for its role in repatriating some of the asylum-seekers to Vietnam. ...

Cambodia’s upgrade to lower-middle income status and looming competition from an E.U.-Vietnam trade deal pose major risks to the country’s garment and footwear export industry, a European business representative said on Thursday. ...

Despite recent growth in online job postings, low-skilled workers in Cambodia are largely being omitted from the shifting market, leaving them with few avenues to find opportunities around the country, industry experts said. ...

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. ...

Investment in Cambodia’s booming construction industry increased by 43.3 percent over the first four months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the Land Management Ministry on Tuesday. ...

Almost 100 people from Boeung Snor village gathered at Banteay Meanchey’s Provincial Hall yesterday, demanding that provincial authorities resolve a 13-year-old dispute involving land promised to a group of Khmer Rouge defectors by the government in 1997. ...

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 ...