The Khmer Will Party held a party congress on Sunday to appoint new leaders after the previous leadership, including party president Kong Monika, resigned to contest the 2023 election under the banner of the Candlelight Party.
The National Assembly will not meet with four opposition parties who want to initiate reforms at the National Election Committee to address allegations of irregularities in the conduct of the June commune election.
The Khmer Will Party, which announced intentions of uniting with the Candlelight Party this week, quickly had its officials removed from the Supreme Consultative Council. The U.N.’s human rights envoy to Cambodia raised concerns about Cambodia’s upcoming national election, recalling the “unfair” dissolution of the political opposition and drawing attention to ongoing mass trials.
The Khmer Will Party will contest the next national election with the resurgent Candlelight Party, marking a potential merging of minor opposition parties.
Four political parties want an overhaul of the NEC composition, pushing for more independent members on the election body, which has skewed sharply toward the ruling CPP since the dissolution of the CNRP in 2017.
BALAING COMMUNE, Siem Reap province — A campaign promise from one of Cambodia’s minor opposition parties is bringing the issue of early childhood education onto the ballot.
The committee has been disqualifying opposition candidates for being illiterate or not filling out their own candidacy documents.
The National Election Committee on Monday and Tuesday ordered the removal of more commune election candidates from the Candlelight Party, radio broadcaster Mam Sonando’s Beehive Party and the Khmer Will Party.
VOD sat down with Kong Monika, the president of the Khmer Will 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 National Election Committee has delisted 11 candidates for the June local election from two opposition parties, allegedly because they were illiterate.
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