10% of New Commune Chiefs Are Women
Only 1 in 10 commune chiefs elected across the country last month are women, as a ruling party spokesman said what mattered was effective gender-promoting policies and not the gender of candidates.
Only 1 in 10 commune chiefs elected across the country last month are women, as a ruling party spokesman said what mattered was effective gender-promoting policies and not the gender of candidates.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday the people want the CPP to continue to lead the country. Interior Minister Sar Kheng warned the national bank can be blacklisted if authorities didn’t crackdown on money laundering and drug financing.
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party was confirmed the overwhelming victor at the June commune election, as the electoral body announced on Sunday the final results of an election marred with allegations of irregularities and intimidation.
Candlelight Party vice president Son Chhay is the target of a $1 million complaint by the ruling party, where he is accused of impacting the CPP’s honor during an interview with Washington-based online media Cambodia Daily.
A Candlelight Party activist who was arrested in Battambang on Wednesday has now been charged by the court with breaking and entering. The NEC has received 85 election-related complaints.
This year’s election was marked by a tidal wave of support for the ruling party. As preliminary results come in, just four out of the country’s 1,652 communes voted in opposition commune chiefs, all from the Candlelight Party.
For some, the Candlelight Party’s single-digit wins in communes is simply “unbelievable.” Others point to voter intimidation and the dearth of neutral observers as burying the voters’ “real” will.
In a statement issued in the morning, the Candlelight Party said it did not consider Sunday’s election to have been free and fair, and that results did not reflect the will of the Cambodian people.
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party is claiming a near-clean sweep of the country’s 1,652 communes, as the NEC’s preliminary results from around 13% of communes so far suggest the party is on track to a whitewash.
The Candlelight Party describes Muoy commune as an opposition stronghold in Preah Sihanouk, where communities without land titles face precarious futures. A candidate who spent two years in jail over a land dispute thinks the issue will be his ticket to victory.
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