Elections

Some unions seem reluctant to answer the CPP’s call for unionised workers to be allowed to join tomorrow’s launch of campaigning for the June 4 commune elections. ...

As the country enters its first campaign period since the CNRP nearly upset the ruling party in 2013, the opposition party believes momentum is on its side. The researchers found that in the three communes they visited, the ruling party was deeply intertwined with the ...

Come voting day on June 4, at least 15,000 independent observers recruited by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections (Comfrel) will be on duty at polling stations to ensure that voters feel free to cast their votes as they wish. ...

Cambodia’s National Election Committee yesterday concluded that its indelible ink – whose indelibility was called into question earlier this month when samples were reportedly washed off – is acceptable for use in the upcoming June 4 commune elections after publicly testing it on 16 people. ...

The Cambodia National Rescue Party yesterday celebrated its top female candidates before the upcoming communal elections at an event under the slogan “Thousands of Lights for Women”, though women’s rights activists criticised the strategy as lacking teeth in fostering greater representation for women. ...

Representatives from the E.U., CNRP and civil society organizations put newly delivered election ink to the test on Wednesday, a week after a spokesman for the country’s top election body warned that a sample batch of the ink could be washed off using a hair ...

he CNRP on Tuesday asked the National Election Committee (NEC) to help reverse a City Hall ban on election marches along major Phnom Penh streets, a spokesman said. However, the NEC appeared to have drawn the opposite conclusion from their meeting. ...

Talking up the risk of war during the coming election campaign can be expected to bring legal action from the National Election Committee (NEC), the body’s spokesman said yesterday, a day after the premier warned he feared conflict would ensue if his ruling Cambodian People’s ...

Testing of a new batch of election ink to be used in upcoming commune elections showed that it cannot be removed, a spokesman for the National Election Committee (NEC) said on Thursday, a day after telling reporters that samples provided by the ink supplier could ...

The number of women standing in the upcoming commune elections remains low, civil society groups have warned, driven by a lack of nominations from Cambodia’s male-dominated political elite. ...

The country is set to embark on local elections that promise to highlight the economic hardships faced by many Cambodians despite a sustained annual growth rate and continued poverty reduction, economic and political observers said this week. A report from Future Forum released on Tuesday ...

Less than a month before Cambodia goes to the polls, the country’s top election body on Wednesday acknowledged it had paid nearly $800,000 for indelible ink that its own tests showed could be removed using hair care products, an issue one opposition leader called a ...

 In a country known for its political patronage networks, volunteering for a demotion is rare. But Moeung Visalsok, 46, a ruling Cambodian People’s Party district council member in Kampong Chhnang province, is doing just that.   ...

The National Election Committee has so far approved more than 30,000 observers from NGOs for the June 4 commune elections and confirmed that more than 100,000 observers affiliated with political parties will also monitor voting. ...

Facebook has long been the key battleground in Cambodian politics, with parties wrestling for the ear of a young and increasingly connected electorate. But recent analytics show a particularly political brand of social media addiction in the Kingdom, even by regional standards, pushing the stakes ...

Reacting to criticism from the CNRP and other organizations, Cambodia’s top election body on Sunday defended its support of a ban on election marches along prominent public areas of Phnom Penh, saying it was for public safety. ...

More than 30,000 police officers, military police and soldiers will be deployed to ensure no one can “destroy” next month’s commune elections, Interior Minister Sar Kheng said on Thursday. ...

The National Election Committee yesterday defended its decision to print 1.5 million extra ballots for the upcoming commune elections, saying the chances of misuse were minimal given better identification systems – though the opposition and civil society remained unconvinced. ...

An election official warned Facebook users not to make any politically charged posts the day before the election yesterday during a three-day training session on campaign monitoring, with observers accusing him of overstepping the bounds of a rule forbidding parties from campaigning on that day. ...

The two main political parties contesting the upcoming commune elections revealed disparate campaign budget plans yesterday, with the opposition pledging to spend over $1 million and a spokesman for the ruling CPP saying his party will not be creating a central campaigning budget at all. ...

Cambodia’s long-standing fear of Vietnam can sometimes appear to be borderline irrational and allegations of land grabbing, war-mongering, even contaminated food exports — alongside abusive insults — are often leveled at the eastern neighbors. That will only intensify as the commune elections get closer this ...

The election committee of Tbong Khmum province is investigating a complaint that the ruling CPP violated electioneering rules by posting party signs on homes before the official campaign period kicks off for the June 4 commune elections. ...

The National Election Committee will broadcast daily interview panels featuring all political parties that are running in upcoming local elections on state-run television and radio stations during the 14-day election campaign period, spokesman Hang Puthea said on Tuesday. ...

Officials and foreign donors yesterday sought to play down concerns over the security of the National Election Committee’s voter list, after anonymous leaker “Thleay” released a video appearing to show manipulation of the database and the NEC confirmed it had been hacked.​ ...