In 2018, the Khmer Will Party — then-considered a potential successor to the dissolved CNRP — stood fourth in the general election with little more than 3 percent of the national vote. Four years later, the party is back to contest the local election in June but with only a small footprint of around 60 communes across the country and far less than the Candlelight Party, which is contesting in more than 1,600 constituencies. 

VOD sat down with Kong Monika, the president of the party, to talk about the party’s prospects and the policies it will pitch to the electorate. Monika admitted that the party was still small and lacking in resources but was focused on making commune administrations nonpartisan and reducing corruption and abuse of power by commune chiefs. 

The party president also foresees other CNRP-linked parties eating into each other’s votes, arguing that a fractured opposition could benefit the ruling CPP.