Cambodia National Rescue Party

The Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) is an electoral alliance between two main democratic opposition parties in Cambodia: the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party. CNRP was founded in mid-2012 to run together in the 2013 elections. The party principles and values are the rule of law and democracy, with social merit and harmonization, as well as mutual respect of interest. The party believes in strengthening freedom and human rights, the institution of free and fair elections, and “rescue, serve, protect.” After the 2013 elections, it became the second-largest party in Cambodia, accounting for 55 seats out of the 123 seats in parliament.

In the June 2017 commune elections, CNRP received 43.83 percent of the votes cast versus 50.76 percent of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party. As CNRP’s electoral momentum threatened the ruling party ahead of the 2018 parliamentary elections, court cases, widely perceived as politically motivated, were filed against its leaders, resulting in the continuing exile of Sam Rainsy and the imprisonment of Kem Sokha. In November 2017, the CNRP was dissolved by Cambodia’s high court with its 118 leaders banned from politics for 5 years. Despite this major setback, these former CNRP leaders still exert all their efforts, particularly by appealing to the international community, to bring Cambodia back to the democratic path.