Government

Cambodia plans to have an ambitious environmental code adopted by the end of this year, according to a legal adviser with the law firm helping to write the legislation, though conservationists yesterday remained wary about how it would be implemented. ...

In what one observer said was simply an act of politicking, the opposition CNRP on Thursday said it would push its campaign pledge of giving $500,000 to every commune in the National Assembly. ...

Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn yesterday met with the newly appointed Finnish ambassador Satu Suikkari-Kleven, who is based in Bangkok. “Ms Suikkari-Kleven told the Foreign Minister that some Finnish companies are interested in cooperating with Cambodia to invest in energy and electricity from waste,” Foreign Affairs ...

With the National Election Committee (NEC) having released preliminary commune election results, parties have begun registering requests for recounts to the body, with one commune each in Svay Rieng and Battambang provinces appearing to have already flipped sides as of yesterday. ...

Already looking ahead to 2018, Prime Minister Hun Sen has told his Cambodian People’s Party that had Sunday’s commune elections been a national election, they would have won even more National Assembly seats than they did in 2013. ...

About a thousand workers from the Southland garment factory yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Labour to demand intervention from the authorities to force the company to reinstate 10 unionists suspended from work after a strike began earlier this week. ...

The Ministry of Commerce and other relevant ministries will meet later this month to review progress on the country’s first consumer protection law and formulate a plan to complete the draft legislation, a ministry official said yesterday. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) posted complete preliminary results online on Wednesday evening after receiving missing forms from 344 communes, an official said, with the final tallies from Sunday’s commune elections expected before June 25. ...

Ten union representatives were yesterday suspended from the Southland garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district after more than a thousand workers went on strike to protest the factory’s decisions about time taken off for voting in Sunday’s commune elections. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Defence has demanded an apology from Thai media outlets for reports linking Defence Minister Tea Banh to a recent case of alleged cross-border arms smuggling by a Thai air force officer, one which has also ensnared an official from Cambodia’s Interior Ministry ...

The government lifted a 2011 ban on sending Cambodian maids to Malaysia in January, according to a directive Prime Minister Hun Sen signed late last year, contradicting months of government denials. ...

The ruling CPP is losing votes in remote provinces while making up ground on the opposition CNRP in Phnom Penh and surrounding areas, according to election data showing the two major parties cutting into each other’s leads in traditional strongholds. ...

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak’s pre-election warning that some NGOs and their leaders were being watched for illegally aiding the opposition was a threat designed to frighten them, General Sopheak said on Wednesday, as civil society groups warily condemned the statements. ...

The ruling CPP and opposition CNRP have filed a combined 39 official complaints over the running of Sunday’s commune elections while independent observers continue to criticize pre-election conditions that they say likely compromised the poll.Hang Puthea, spokesman for the National Election Committee (NEC), said the ...

Asian election monitor Anfrel yesterday commended authorities, citizens and political parties for Sunday’s smooth commune elections, but stopped short of calling the ballot “free and fair”, raising concerns over the heightened political rhetoric in the run-up to June 4. ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) continued on Tuesday to say slow internet and blurry photographs were to blame for delays in publishing election results for 344 remaining communes, with its spokesman offering no timeline for when the public could expect complete results. Some parties and ...

Although the official results will not be released until June 25, the closely watched vote for Cambodia’s commune council elections showed the opposition’s growing strength and suggest that the national elections in 2018 will be a race between two parties. ...

The Labour Ministry has announced the names of 77 private recruitment agencies approved to select, train and send Cambodian workers to Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. ...

Opposition spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday that if any of the CNRP’s more than 400 new commune chiefs who won office on Sunday cannot follow through on the party’s campaign pledges, they will “give up” their positions.Sovann said the Cambodia National Rescue Party had made ...

Cambodia’s central bank is to conduct on-site audits of microfinance institutions to check if they are complying with the interest rate cap that came into force more than two months ago, industry insiders have said.   ...

With official tallies from Sunday’s commune elections slowed by internet hiccups, both major political parties provided similar results but different stories on Monday on which had won a vote that drew a record 7 million Cambodians to the polls—300,000 more than had been previously reported ...

Preliminary returns from Sunday’s commune elections appear to show a tighter popular vote than the breakdown of communes won would seem to suggest, with the CNRP raking in an estimated 45 percent of votes to the CPP’s 48 percent, according to a coalition of NGOs. ...

Apparent CPP Commune Chief-elect Chhay Thy yesterday pledged to tackle ongoing forestry crimes in Ratanakkiri’s Pate commune – a cause he strongly advocated for during his tenure as a human rights staffer at Adhoc. ...

A day removed from Sunday’s commune elections, independent observers remained mostly positive about polling day but, troubled more by the conditions leading up to the day itself, refrained from declaring the elections free and fair. ...