City Hall Approves Plan for 5 New Districts in Phnom Penh

The Phnom Penh Municipal Council on Monday signed off on the creation of five new districts for the city and will now pass the proposal to the Ministry of Interior for review, municipal spokesman Long Dimanche said Tuesday. The plan for the new districts, which will be cut from the existing nine, was announced by City Hall earlier this month, with Mr. Dimanche saying the move will be completed before the May 18 district and city council elections. “Municipal councilors have agreed with each other to create five new districts and we are preparing the suggestion to be sent to the Ministry of Interior to make improvements,” Mr. Dimanche said, adding that if the Ministry of Interior did not approve the new districts before May, changes to the districts could not be made until the next vote in 2019. … Opposition CNRP chief whip Son Chhay said last week that the move to redraw district lines is likely an attempt to gerrymander district boundaries before the May elections to ensure that the CPP picks up the largest possible number of district councilor positions for the next mandate. Mr. Dimanche said Tuesday that the move was purely for administrative purposes and was not intended to increase the number of CPP district councilors. … Meanchey district governor Kuoch Chamroeun said the creation of new councilor positions was positive. “It will provide more jobs for our civil servants…[and] it will be good for providing services for people,” he said. …

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