Senate elections were held in

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

on 25 February 2018 after being postponed from 14 January 2018. For the first time, the Senate and parliamentary elections occurred in the same year. The result was a victory for the CPP, which won all 58 seats. King

Norodom Sihamoni Norodom Sihamoni (, ; born 14 May 1953) is King of Cambodia. He became King on 14 October 2004, a week after the abdication of his father, Norodom Sihanouk. He is the eldest son of King Sihanouk and former Queen consort Norodom Monineath and ...

nominated Princess Norodom Arunrasmy and Oum Somanin to the Senate.

Background

On 11 February 2017, Rainsy resigned as President of the CNRP, and was succeeded by Sokha. On 3 September, Sokha was arrested and charged with treason, raising questions about the party's future. Another act of repression by the government was the closure of the '' Cambodia Daily'' newspaper. On 16 November 2017, the CNRP was forcibly dissolved, eliminating any real challenge to the long-ruling CPP. Its seats in parliament were distributed to three other parties. The CNRP was dissolved and revoked the voting rights of its commune councilors and parliamentarians, leading to the arrest of Kem Sokha, a leader of the CNRP, who was arrested on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government with the help of the US. The US and Khem Sokha have both denied the allegations.

Electoral system

The Senate of Cambodia is elected every 6 years by an indirect party-list proportional representation through 8 multi members constituencies (regions), with the Communal Chiefs, Communal Councilors, Members of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Conduct

According to the National Election Committee (NEC), three political parties running in next week's Senate election have done virtually little campaigning, which NGOs attribute to the dissolution of the main opposition party. The Cambodian Youth Party, the Khmer National United Party, and FUNCIPEC are these parties. Sotheara Yoeurng, legal and monitoring officer of the Cambodian Committee for Free and Fair Elections, claimed the three parties were scarcely campaigning owing to the dissolution of the CNRP. Prior to the next Senate election on February 25, the NEC has prohibited all political parties from campaigning on nine key boulevards in Phnom Penh. The Ballot was arranged in the order of the following:

Results

Results by region

Elected Senators

Reactions

FUNCINPEC

Nhep Bunchin, spokesman for

FUNCINPEC The National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia, commonly referred to as FUNCINPEC, is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Founded in 1981 by Norodom Sihanouk, it began as a resistance movement again ...

, stated the official results did not differ from the preliminary results and that party still supports the election outcome.

Cambodian Youth Party

The CYP's President Pich Sros supported the statement made by

and stated, "I don't think there was anything wrong with the election".

Khmer National United Party

Run Meatra the spokesman for the party stated, that the party supports the outcome of the election that it was free and fair.

Aftermath

After the election which saw CPP hold all 58 elected seats, the King nominated Princess Norodom Arunrasmy and Oum Somanin to the Senate and the National Assembly elected two FUNCIPEC members to the Senate, bringing the 62-member legislative body dominated by the ruling Cambodian People's Party to a close.

References

{{Cambodian Senate elections

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Elections in Cambodia