Elections

The United Nations is ready to cooperate with and support the National Election Committee (NEC) with additional aid, providing it submits a written letter of intent to the UN’s office in the country. ...

A group of election-monitoring NGOs have expressed alarm at what they say are inexplicable delays in starting to rebuild the national voter list, with concerns that the National Election Committee (NEC) may be leaving things too late for the 2017 commune elections. ...

The ongoing presidential election campaign in the United States may be one of the more unseemly the country has seen, but observers and politicians in Cambodia say their country still has a lot to learn from the American democratic process. ...

Some 5,000 supporters turned out for the congress of the League for Democracy Party in Phnom Penh yesterday.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s eldest son, Hun Manet, announced on Sunday that he would not be attending a Khmer New Year parade he was invited to in Long Beach, California, in the face of vocal opposition from some of the community’s Cambodian-Americans. ...

Deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha on Saturday brushed off protests from a group of students demanding he respond to claims that he had a series of extramarital affairs, telling CNRP faithful to prepare for next year’s commune elections.   ...

Claims that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s recent spike in Facebook popularity is the result of purchasing “likes” from abroad are “completely twisted,” the government’s National Counter-Terrorism Committee concluded in a five-page report released on Wednesday. ...

The National Assembly issued a statement on Monday calling on deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha to respond to a complaint filed by a group of students last week over audio recordings leaked online that purport to be Mr. Sokha flirting with a mistress.   ...

Former CPP lawmaker Chea Chamroeun took to Facebook on Friday to declare his resignation from the Cambodian Liberty Party, less than four months after he announced its formation.   ...

Appeal hearings began on Thursday in the case of 11 opposition figures who were convicted in July for insurrection over a 2014 political protest, with a CNRP official blasting the municipal court over double standards for rejecting his request to get medical treatment outside prison. ...

With members still languishing in jail and under fresh attack via a now two-week-old infidelity scandal, the Cambodia National Rescue Party emerged from a two-day meeting in Manila yesterday to announce it will not be hitting back, instead opting to focus on  the upcoming elections. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday threatened to have any politician arrested on the spot for promising to erase people’s debt if elected, revisiting criticism that he leveled against the opposition CNRP prior to the 2013 national election. ...

About 20 members of the opposition party’s permanent committee traveled to Manila on Saturday night for a two-day conference with CNRP President Sam Rainsy, who remains in exile, party spokesman Yem Ponhearith said on Sunday. ...

Opposition lawmaker Kong Saphea – one of the two parliamentarians brutally beaten by anti-CNRP protesters outside of the National Assembly last year – has been summonsed to appear for questioning over a complaint regarding property stolen from him during the attack. ...

As the National Election Committee seeks to reform itself and the election process, election observers say it is failing at the provincial and local level. Critics say hundreds of NEC directors and deputies across the country could potentially fail to implement the policies of the ...

About 2,800 supporters attended the first congress of Nhek Bun Chhay’s Khmer National United Party (KNUP) in Phnom Penh yesterday, a party spokesperson said, weeks after splitting from the Prince Norodom Ranariddh-controlled Funcinpec party. ...

Cambodia’s 2013 election was characterised by both the growing engagement of young voters and by numerous instances of collective violence. How will these developments impact Cambodian politics in the lead-up to the 2018 National Assembly election? ...

The National Election Committee (NEC) yesterday appointed Tep Nytha to another term as secretary general, in a selection process that civil society and opposition party members have criticized as fraudulent and closed from public scrutiny. ...

Just a quarter of Cambodian voters are fully satisfied with the government’s efforts to deliver on its promises thus far in the fifth mandate, though more than half rated themselves partly so, according to the results of a nationwide survey conducted by election watchdog Comfrel. ...

The director of Transparency International Cambodia on Friday called for all political parties to incorporate anti-corruption measures into their platforms before next year’s commune elections. ...

The Cambodia Youth Party (CYP), a new coalition targeting the vote of Cambodia’s burgeoning under-30 population, became official this week after receiving its licence from the Ministry of Interior. ...

Cambodia’s civil servants and security forces must be politically neutral, and will be if the Cambodia National Rescue Party takes power after the 2018 election, acting opposition leader Kem Sokha told supporters in Banteay Meanchey on Saturday. ...

Eleven opposition activists who have been jailed since 2014 for supposedly participating in an “insurrection” will have their appeal against their conviction heard on March 17, their lawyer said on Friday. ...

The European Union pledged €10 million in preparation of the upcoming 2017 and 2018 elections yesterday, which the National Election Committee (NEC) hopes to add to in a new budget they will be submitting to the government, according to NEC officials. ...