Peace efforts intensified in 1989 and 1991 with two international conferences in Paris, and a United Nations peacekeeping mission helped maintain a ceasefire. As a part of the peace effort, United Nations-sponsored elections were held in 1993 and helped restore some semblance of normality, as did the rapid diminishment of the Khmer Rouge in the mid-1990s. Norodom Sihanouk was reinstated as King. A coalition government, formed after national elections in 1998, brought renewed political stability and the surrender of remaining Khmer Rouge forces in 1998.
Political aspects and elections
Since the restoration of what is referred to as multi-party democracy in 1993, the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has been in a coalition with the royalist Funcinpec party however the CPP has been the majority party following the 1997 Coup and purge against the FUNCINPEC. Hun Sen is the longest serving non-royal leader in Southeast Asia and is one of the longest serving prime ministers in the world, having been in power through various coalitions since 1985. He became sole Prime Minister on 30 November 1998 and would go on to lead the CPP to victory in the next three elections, but has been accused of poll fraud and corruption. He stepped down after five terms, with his son taking on the role of Prime Minister in 23 July 2023.[1]
One of the world's longest-serving leaders, with a reputation as a 'wily operator who destroys his political opponents',[2] Hun Sen is widely viewed as a dictator that has assumed authoritarian power in Cambodia using violence and intimidation and corruption to maintain his power base.[3][4][5] Hun Sen has accumulated highly centralized power in Cambodia, including a 'praetorian guard that appears to rival the capabilities of the country's regular military units.'[6]
From July 30 to August 30, 1989, representatives of 18 countries, the four Cambodian parties, and Secretary-General of the United NationsJavier Pérez de Cuéllar met in Paris in an effort to negotiate a comprehensive settlement. They hoped to achieve those objectives seen as crucial to the future of post-occupation Cambodia: a verified withdrawal of the remaining Vietnamese occupation troops and genuine self-determination for the Cambodian people.
On October 23, 1991, the Paris Conference convened to sign a comprehensive settlement giving the UN full authority to supervise a ceasefire, repatriate the displaced Khmer along the border with Thailand, disarm and demobilize the factional armies, and to prepare the country for free and fair elections.
Prince Sihanouk, President of the Supreme National Council of Cambodia (SNC), and other members of the SNC returned to Phnom Penh in November, 1991, to begin the resettlement process in Cambodia. The UN Advance Mission for Cambodia (UNAMIC) was deployed at the same time to maintain liaison among the factions and begin demining operations to expedite the repatriation of approximately 370,000 Cambodians from Thailand.
Over four million Cambodians (about 90% of eligible voters) participated in the May 1993 elections, although the Khmer Rouge or Party of Democratic Kampuchea (PDK), whose forces were never actually disarmed or demobilized, barred some people from participating in the 10-15 percent of the country (holding six percent of the population) it then controlled.
The parties represented in the 120-member Assembly proceeded to draft and approve a new Constitution, which was promulgated September 24. It established a multiparty liberal democracy in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, with the former Prince Sihanouk elevated to King. Prince Ranariddh and Hun Sen became First and Second Prime Ministers, respectively, in the Royal Cambodian Government (RCG). The Constitution provides for a wide range of internationally recognized human rights, however Cambodia is a "vaguely communist free-market state with a relatively authoritarian coalition ruling over a superficial democracy."[7]
Cambodia still faces numerous challenges and sociopolitical issues that stunt its development as a nation. In 2013, Cambodia scored a 20 out of a scale of a 100 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt) on the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, which also ranked the nation as the a ranking of 160 out of 175 nations (tied with other nations) making the nation one of the most corrupt in the world and Cambodia is the 2nd most corrupt nation in Asia with North Korea being the 1st.[8] According to Freedom House in their 2013 report Cambodia scored a 5.5 out of a scale of 1 (Free) to 7 (Not Free) indicating that Cambodia as a nation is 'Not Free'.[9]
As of 2013, the Human Development Index (HDI) ranks Cambodia 138th place (tied with Laos) making the nation one of the lowest ranking in terms of human development and that it indicates that Cambodia has lower medium to low development presently.[10] Cambodia is a low income economy with it having one of the lowest annual incomes in the world with the agriculture sector dominating the country's economy, followed by the service and industrial sectors. According to the Global Hunger Index, Cambodia currently ranks as the 32nd hungriest nation in the world out of the list of the 56 nations with the worst hunger situation(s) in the world.[11]
Cambodia is a low-income economy, with two million people living in poverty, endemic government corruption and a poor record on human rights. One third of the population live on less than a dollar a day. Forty per cent of children are chronically malnourished.[12]
In 1997, factional fighting between FUNCINPEC supporters of Prince Norodom Ranariddh and of Hun Sen broke out, resulting in a number of casualties. This event was generally treated by the press, as well as by some scholars, as a "bloody coup by strongman Hun Sen",[13] without much serious and neutral investigation into its causes and its development.[14] Among the very few who attempted to look at evidence from both sides at the time were Australian ambassador to Cambodia Tony Kevin,[15] and journalist Barry Wain, who wrote, "in circumstances that remain disputed, Mr. Hun Sen's military forces... defeated Prince Ranariddh's troops in Phnom Penh".[16]
Hun Sen had alleged that Ranariddh had been planning a take-over with the help of Khmer Rouge fighters, supposedly smuggled into the capital (on the other hand, Hun Sen's army included a number of ex-Khmer rouge fighters).[17] After the royalist resistance was crushed in Phnom Penh, there was indeed some FUCINPEC-Khmer Rouge in the Northern provinces, where the fighting against Hun Sen offensive lasted until August 1997.[18]
Following the coup Prince Ranariddh went into exile to Paris. Some FUNCINPEC leaders were forced to flee the country, many were shot and Ung Huot was elected as the new First Prime Minister. FUNCINPEC leaders returned to Cambodia shortly before the 1998 National Assembly elections. In those elections, the CPP received 41% of the vote, FUNCINPEC 32%, and the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) 13%. Many international observers judged the elections to have been seriously flawed, claiming political violence, intimidation, and lack of media access. The CPP and FUNCINPEC formed another coalition government, with CPP the senior partner.
Cambodia's first commune elections were held in February 2002. These elections to select chiefs and members of 1,621 commune (municipality) councils also were marred by political violence and fell short of being free and fair by international standards. The election results were largely acceptable to the major parties, though procedures for the new local councils have not been fully implemented.
A riot occurred in January 2003 in which the Embassy of Thailand and several Thai businesses were damaged. Following the incident, Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed the RGC's regret to the Thai Government and promised compensation. See Anti-Thai Cambodian riots of 2003
On July 27, 2003, elections were held and the Cambodian People's Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen won a majority, but not enough to rule outright. The King has urged the two other parties, Sam Rainsy Party and FUNCINPEC, to accept the incumbent Hun Sen as prime minister. In mid-2004 a coalition government was formed between FUNCINPEC and the CPP.
In 2004, King Sihanouk, still in poor health, announced his abdication of the throne. Prince Norodom Ranariddh was one of the leading candidates to succeed Sihanouk, but the Royal Council of the Throne selected Prince Norodom Sihamoni, as the new king.[19] A sign of Cambodia's modernization is the construction of skyscrapers and Phnom Penh's satellite city, Camko City. As a result of modernization, many problems such as illegal deforestation are occurring.
Cambodia's longtime Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has a very firm grip on power. He has been accused of the crackdown on opponents and critics. His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has been in power since 1979. In December 2021, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced his support for his son Hun Manet to succeed him after the next election, which is expected to take place in 2023.[25]
In July 2023 election, the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) easily won by landslide in flawed election, after disqualification of Cambodia's most important opposition, Candlelight Party.[26] On 22 August 2023, Hun Manet was sworn in as the new Cambodian prime minister.[27]
Australia is paying Cambodia money to resettle asylum seekers who arrived by boat on Australian shores. Australia is expected to give Cambodia tens of millions of dollars for accepting the refugees who will be expected to assimilate into a society where '40 per cent of people live in poverty'. They will have no rights to be transferred to another country. That action has been met with widespread condemnation by human rights groups.[28]
Cambodia, a resource sparse country with a large number of poor people is thought to be unfit for use as a resettlement area because of its poverty and human rights abuses, also because the people being resettled are unable to do some of the most basic things like opening bank accounts. Rights groups accuse Cambodia of playing politics in the past with refugees and using them as bargaining chips in bilateral relations, pointing to the deportation of 20 ethnic Uighur asylum seekers to China in 2009. Beijing announced a $1 billion aid package for Phnom Penh two days later.[28]
Sam Rainsy a political opposition leader commented on the refugee situation from Australia: 'Cambodia is one of the world's most corrupt countries. This government has made Cambodia one of the world's poorest countries. So any money, especially from any foreign source, would be diverted and channeled into the pocket of our corrupt leaders with very little, if any, benefit to the ordinary people.'[29]
Hun Sen's party accused of political corruption
Hun Sen and his government have seen much controversy. Hun Sen was a former Khmer Rouge commander who was originally installed by the Vietnamese and, after the Vietnamese left the country, maintains his strong man position by violence and oppression when deemed necessary.[30] In 1997, fearing the growing power of his co-Prime Minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Hun launched a coup, using the army to purge Ranariddh and his supporters. Ranariddh was ousted and fled to Paris while other opponents of Hun Sen were arrested, tortured and some summarily executed.[30][31]
In addition to political oppression, the Cambodian government has been accused of corruption in the sale of vast areas of land to foreign investors resulting in the eviction of thousands of villagers[32] as well as taking bribes in exchange for grants to exploit Cambodia's oil wealth and mineral resources.[33] Cambodia is consistently listed as one of the most corrupt governments in the world.[34][35][36]Amnesty International currently recognizes one prisoner of conscience in the country: 29-year-old land rights activist Yorm Bopha.[37] In 2014, Transparency International released a National Integrity System Assessment on Cambodia detailing systemic corruption across the country's governance system.[38]
The politics of Cambodia are defined within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the king serves as the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government. The collapse of communism set in motion events that led to the withdrawal of the Vietnamese armed forces, which had established their presence in the country since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. The 1993 constitution, which is currently in force, was promulgated as a result of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, followed by elections organized under the aegis of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia. The constitution declares Cambodia to be an "independent, sovereign, peaceful, permanently neutral and non-aligned country." The constitution also proclaims a liberal, multiparty democracy in which powers are devolved to the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. However, there is no effective opposition to the Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power from 1984 up to 2023. His Cambodian People's Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly in 2018 after the banning of opposition party CNRP and KNLF. KNLF became a main opposition exiled in Denmark after CNRP was dissolved. During the communal election in 2022 and the national election in 2023, there were no international observers. The government is considered to be autocratic.
Norodom Sihanouk was a Cambodian statesman, Sangkum and FUNCINPEC politician, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in various capacities throughout his long career, most often as both King and Prime Minister of Cambodia. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.
Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Mainland Southeast Asia, spanning an area of 181,035 square kilometres, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The capital and most populous city is Phnom Penh.
Samdech Hun Sen is a Cambodian politician and former military general who served as the prime minister of Cambodia from 1985 to 2023. Hun Sen is the longest-serving head of government in Cambodia's history. He is the president of the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has governed Cambodia since 1979, and a member of the National Assembly for Kandal. His full honorary title is Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen.
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 against the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government. In 1982, it formed a resistance pact with the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK), together with the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) and the Khmer Rouge. It became a political party in 1992.
Norodom Ranariddh was a Cambodian prince, politician and law academic. He was the second son of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and a half-brother of King Norodom Sihamoni. Ranariddh was the president of FUNCINPEC, a Cambodian royalist party. He was also the first Prime Minister of Cambodia following the restoration of the monarchy, serving between 1993 and 1997, and subsequently as the President of the National Assembly between 1998 and 2006.
Chea Sim was a Cambodian politician. He was President of the Cambodian People's Party from 1991 to 2015, President of the National Assembly of Cambodia from 1981 to 1998 and President of the Senate from 1999 to 2015. His official title was Samdech Akka Moha Thomma Pothisal Chea Sim.
Norodom Chakrapong is a Cambodian politician, businessman and former major-general of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. He is the fourth son of Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia and also a half-brother of the current king, Norodom Sihamoni. Chakrapong started his career as a military pilot in 1963. After Sihanouk was overthrown in 1970, Chakrapong spent time under house arrest, then in Beijing as the Head of Protocol of then-Prince Sihanouk, afterwards living overseas before he joined the Funcinpec in 1981 and fought against Vietnamese occupation as a commander of the Armée Nationale Sihanoukiste. In 1991, Chakrapong left Funcinpec to join the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) and served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia between 1992 and 1993. When the CPP lost the 1993 general elections, Chakrapong led a secession attempt in 1993. In 1994, he was accused of joining a failed coup attempt which led him to be sent into exile. After Chakrapong was pardoned in 1998, he founded a private airline company, Royal Phnom Penh Airways. The airlines later stopped all operations in early 2006.
Sar Kheng is a Cambodian politician. He is the vice president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party and served as Minister of the Interior and deputy prime minister from 1992 to 2023. He also represents the province of Battambang in the Cambodian Parliament. Kheng has been the Minister of the Interior since 1992. Until March 2006, he shared the position with FUNCINPEC party member You Hockry as co-Ministers of the Interior, but then became sole interior minister in a cabinet reshuffle as FUNCINPEC ended its coalition with the CPP.
The Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea, renamed in 1990 to the National Government of Cambodia, was a coalition government in exile composed of three Cambodian political factions, namely Prince Norodom Sihanouk's FUNCINPEC party, the Party of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) formed in 1982, broadening the de facto deposed Democratic Kampuchea regime. For most of its existence, it was the internationally recognized government of Cambodia.
The MOULINAKA was a pro-Sihanouk military organization formed in August 1979 by an armed group on the Thai-Cambodian border.
The prime minister of Cambodia is the head of government of Cambodia. The prime minister is also the chairman of the Cabinet and leads the executive branch of the Royal Government of Cambodia. The prime minister is a member of parliament, and is appointed by the monarch for a term of five years. Since 1945, 37 individuals have served as prime minister; 33 as official prime ministers, and 4 in acting capacities. The current prime minister since 2023 is Hun Manet.
General elections were held in Cambodia on 27 July 2003 to elect members of the National Assembly. The elections were won by the ruling Cambodian People's Party, which won a majority of 73 seats in the 123-seat parliament. However, due to the requirement for a two-thirds majority to elect a Prime Minister, a new government was not formed until July 2004 when a deal was reached with the FUNCINPEC party. Hun Sen was subsequently re-elected the post of Prime Minister.
The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was a United Nations peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992–93 formed following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords. This was the first occasion in which the UN directly assumed responsibility for the administration of an outright independent state, rather than simply monitoring or supervising the area. The UN transitional authority organized and ran elections, had its own radio station and jail, and was responsible for promoting and safeguarding human rights at the national level.
Bilateral relations between the United States and Cambodia, while strained throughout the Cold War, have strengthened considerably in modern times. The U.S. supports efforts in Cambodia to combat terrorism, build democratic institutions, promote human rights, foster economic development, eliminate corruption.
The 1997 Cambodian coup d'état took place in Cambodia from July to September 1997. As a result, co-premier Hun Sen ousted the other co-premier Norodom Ranariddh. At least 32 people were killed during the coup.
General elections were held in Cambodia between 23 and 28 May 1993. The result was a hung parliament with the FUNCINPEC Party being the largest party with 58 seats. Voter turnout was 89.56%. The elections were conducted by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), which also maintained peacekeeping troops in Cambodia throughout the election and the period after it.
The Community of Royalist People's Party was a Cambodian political party that lasted from March 2014 until January 2015. It was founded and led by Norodom Ranariddh, who had been ousted from FUNCINPEC back in 2006. Ideologically a royalist party, the CRPP drew its inspiration from the political legacy of the former King of Cambodia, Norodom Sihanouk, and competed for its voter base with both FUNCINPEC and the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). In January 2015, the CRPP was dissolved when Ranariddh returned to FUNCINPEC.
Ke Kim Yan is the former Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armed Forces of Cambodia and currently one of the ten Deputy Prime Ministers of Cambodia. He is considered as a "highly professional officer with a realistic approach to the challenges before him".
The Cambodian Conflict or Khmer Rouge Insurgency., was an armed conflict that initiated in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, Vietnam which provoked the deposition of Democratic Kampuchea, between the new Cambodian government and an anti-government coalition led by the Khmer Rouge.
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Cambodiaportal 
