CALD General Assembly Approves Charter Amendments

“These will usher in a new era for CALD!”

This is how CALD Chairperson and Cambodian Senator Mardi Seng described the CALD Charter amendments unanimously approved by the CALD General Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand last 31 October 2025.

Prior to the approval, the CALD Executive Committee favorably endorsed the amendments, which were drafted by the Charter Review Committee based on inputs from the organization’s officials and member-parties.  The Review Committee held four (4) meetings between February to March 2025, and came up with proposed amendments on the following areas: 1) membership categories; 2) auxiliary women and youth bodies; 3) member discipline; 4) fundraising and the secretariat; and leadership/chairmanship.

The most consequential among the amendments pertain to the CALD chairperson, who will now be elected for a term of two years and can run for reelection.  This is a radical shift from the previous set-up where the chair-party rotates amongst CALD member-parties every two years, and subsequently appoints the CALD chairperson from its party leadership.

In approving the change from rotation to election of CALD chairperson, CALD members noted that having an elected chairperson is more democratic and goes well with the principles and values of CALD as an organization. Also, among the counterpart organizations of CALD in the liberal network, only CALD subscribes to rotating leadership.

They also pointed out that having an elected chairperson can lead to greater organizational effectiveness as there will be more commitment on the part of the chairperson.  Finally, they argued that including a possibility for reelection of CALD chairperson is better for planning and fundraising purposes, as program execution usually take more than two years to materialize.

“We hope that these amendments can prepare CALD for the future, which – unfortunately – is looking increasingly uncertain, volatile and complex”, said CALD Chairperson Seng. “The challenges to liberalism and democracy in Asia and the world are enormous, so we intend these charter changes to organizationally equip CALD in meeting these challenges head-on.”

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This post was written by CALD