Elections

Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh yesterday doubled down on his seemingly illegal request for Chinese aid, claiming it was his “right”, despite the law explicitly prohibiting political parties from accepting foreign funds. ...

China will donate more than 30 different kinds of equipment – including 60,000 polling booths and 15,000 ballot boxes – to the National Election Committee (NEC) ahead of next year’s general elections. ...

The Cambodian People’s Party is poised to sweep every single elected Senate seat in upcoming elections in February, despite its assurances that multiparty democracy is thriving after the dissolution of the main opposition party. ...

The royalist Funcinpec Party has asked the Communist Party of China for assistance in the upcoming 2018 national election.   ...

Following a meeting with a Chinese delegation yesterday morning, Funcinpec President Prince Norodom Ranariddh claimed to have requested monetary assistance from China, an apparent violation of the Law on Political Parties.​ ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) said only four political parties had registered to contest the February Senate elections, from which the country’s main opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, will be excluded following its widely condemned dissolution by the Supreme Court in November. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen repeated his insistence that Cambodia is self-sufficient and does not need the support of outside countries on Saturday, while continuing to equate “peace” with development.​ ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said from now on he will “stop talking” about the recently dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party and instructed his government officials to do the same, before vowing that self-exiled opposition members who returned to Cambodia would not face arrest. ...

Cabinet chief Phat Sikan was elected as the new president of the Beehive Social Democratic Party after the party held a congress on Sunday in Kandal province. Mr Sikan, 64, was elected to lead BSDP at the congress in Kien Svay district’s Koki commune, attended by ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday suggested that members of dissolved political parties could band together to create a new political party in the wake of the opposition CNRP’s dissolution. ...

The Candlelight Party has not registered to join the upcoming senate election, but four other parties will run, including the ruling CPP and Funcinpec. Som Sorida, deputy secretary-general of the National Election Committee, said the registration period for the election started on November 28 and ended ...

The EU’s decision came in response to the government’s crackdown on the Kingdom’s largest opposition party – the Cambodia National Rescue Party – which was summarily dissolved last month, a development that the EU said rendered credible elections impossible. But in a speech to garment workers ...

The National Election Committee’s newly minted press reaction team responded late on Wednesday to the European Union’s decision to cut funding for the 2018 election, claiming it was unfair to judge the elections before they took place. ...

Cambodia’s top monastic leader, Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, urged the nation’s monks yesterday to vote for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, explaining that the outcome of the 2018 national election has been “arranged already”. ...

Visiting US State Department official W Patrick Murphy yesterday warned that further punitive action could be forthcoming in response to the government’s recent crackdown on the main opposition, while repeatedly pointing to the US’s warm relationship with the people of Cambodia – if not their ...

The European Union announced yesterday that it is suspending all support for Cambodia’s National Election Committee, calling credible elections impossible in light of the government’s dissolution of the ruling party’s only legitimate competitor. ...

The Grassroots Democracy Party, co-founded by slain political analyst Kem Ley, has announced it will compete in the national elections next year in all provinces, though analysts yesterday doubted that it would be able to mount a serious challenge to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. ...

The Beehive Social Democratic Party will convene next week to pick its third president in four months after party leader Houn Phannary resigned due to “personal reasons”. ...

Nuth Sokhom, former Funcinpec lawmaker; Hel Sarat, formerly of the Cambodian Nationality Party; and Dim Sovannarom, former deputy director of the government’s human rights body, were all confirmed to the NEC, replacing three CNRP-nominated members who resigned in protest of the party’s dissolution in November. ...

The National Assembly approved the replacement of three members of the National Election Committee yesterday. It also recognized 16 new members of parliament from the ruling CPP. ...

Amid accusations of bias in favour of the ruling party – and following the removal of the main opposition party from the electoral field – the National Election Committee has announced the creation of a new press reaction team to “attack back at negative points”. ...

The three appointees are Nuth Sokhom, who will be the deputy chief of the NEC, Dim Sovannarom, and Hel Sarat from the Khmer Nationality Party. They were selected among five candidates, according to CPP National Assembly spokesperson Chheang Vun. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) has approved new candidates to fill National Assembly seats left vacant by the dissolution of the opposition, drastically changing the composition of Cambodia’s parliament and providing a shot in the arm for the ailing royalist Funcinpec party. ...

The CPP claims to have received 390 defections as of Monday. They include one lawmaker, 33 provincial and district councillors, and 356 commune officials, of whom 33 are commune chiefs. The chiefs account for around 7 percent of the 489 CNRP chiefs elected in June, ...