Briefs: Sar Kheng Calls for Unity After Election, Seng Theary ‘Strong’
Sar Kheng said Tuesday the recent commune election was free and fair, while his son earlier advocated for officials to serve all citizens.
VOD Staff Jun 23, 7:10 pm
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Sar Kheng said Tuesday the recent commune election was free and fair, while his son earlier advocated for officials to serve all citizens.
Two opposition officials have been fired from state jobs after they stood in the recent election, according to the Candlelight Party.
Election NGO Comfrel mustered fewer than 2,000 observers on Sunday; Nicfec only around 20 — both mere fractions of total polling places. Political pressure and loss of funding have decimated groups that once provided leading assessments of Cambodian elections.
A new opposition party by ex-CNRP officials has taken another step toward becoming formally registered with the Interior Ministry after submitting 4,000 supporters’ thumbprints, as it eyes alliances with other minor parties ahead of next year’s commune elections.
Prach Chan, a ruling party lawmaker, former governor of Battambang and Tbong Khmum, and an ex-Interior Ministry official noted as a close aide to Interior Minister Sar Kheng, is set to become head of the National Election Committee.
Mock elections across all provinces will be held on June 20 to trial a new vote-tallying system involving technology funded by Japan, the E.U. and China, ahead of upcoming 2022 commune elections that are scheduled for next June.
Prime Minister Hun Sen is setting the stage for heightened repression with his message over the weekend that there are opposition plans “to sabotage the upcoming elections,” civil society groups say.
Royalist party Funcinpec announced the return of former co-prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh as party president following a 2018 car crash that severely injured him and killed his wife just before a national election.
Commune councilors voted to select district and provincial representatives on Sunday, with the ruling party predictably taking 92 to 100 percent of the vote in every province.
A few political parties registered for the upcoming in the provincial, municipal and district council elections hope they might win some seats — even as prominent civil society officials said that they have no chance.
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