Kem Sokha, new president of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party. (Photo: AFP/VNA) Phnom Penh (VNA) – Kem Sokha, acting president of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), was elected as the party’s new president on March 2 at the party extraordinary congress after its former leader Sam Rainsy resigned last month.
Kem Sokha has been the CNRP's sole vice president since his Human Rights Party merged with Sam Rainsy's eponymous party in 2012 to form the CNRP.
The CNRP Congress also approved adjustments to the party’s regulations, raising the number of its vice president from one to three.
The congress elected three new party vice-presidents, who are executive committee chief Pol Ham, executive committee deputy chief Eng Chhay Eang and public affairs director Mu Sochua.
The election of the new party leadership came after resignation of the CNRP’s former president CNRP Sam Rainsy on February 11 to respond to amendments of the Law on Political Parties that ban people with criminal records from holding the chair and vice chair of political parties.
Sam Rainsy has been convicted of a series of defamation charges and has lived in exile since 2015 to avoid them. He has also faced a number of sentences in Cambodia.-VNA
