Cambodian People's Party គណបក្សប្រជាជនកម្ពុជា | |
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.png) Logo of the party, featuring an angel spreading flowers, surrounded by golden rice stalks and a demi cogwheel. | |
| Khmer name | គណបក្សប្រជាជនកម្ពុជា |
| Abbreviation | CPP KPRP (before 1991) |
| President | Hun Sen |
| Vice Presidents | Say Chhum Sar Kheng Tea Banh Men Sam An[1] Hun Manet |
| Founders | Son Ngoc Minh Tou Samouth |
| Founded | 28 June 1951 (74 years, 149 days) (original)[2] 5 January 1979 (46 years, 323 days) (reconstruction) |
| Split from | Indochinese Communist Party Communist Party of Kampuchea (de-facto) |
| Headquarters | 7 January Palace[3] 203Norodom Boulevard,Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| Youth wing | People's Revolutionary Youth Union of Kampuchea (1979–1989) Central Youth of the Cambodian People's Party (present) |
| Armed wing | Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (1979–1989) Cambodian People's Armed Forces (1989–1993) |
| Membership(2023) |  7,100,000[4] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | |
| National affiliation | Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (1978–1981) Kampuchean United Front for National Construction and Defence (1981–2006) Solidarity Front for Development of the Cambodian Motherland (present) |
| International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International |
| Colors | Sky blue |
| Slogan | "ឯករាជ្យ សន្តិភាព សេរីភាព ប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ អព្យាក្រឹត និងវឌ្ឍនភាពសង្គម" ("Independence, Peace, Freedom, Democracy, Neutrality and Social Progress") |
| Anthem | "បទចម្រៀងនៃគណបក្សប្រជាជនកម្ពុជា" ("Anthem of the Cambodian People's Party") |
| Senate | 55 / 62 |
| National Assembly | 120 / 125 |
| Commune chiefs | 1,648 / 1,652 |
| Commune councillors | 9,376 / 11,622 |
| Provincial, municipal, town and district councillors[15] | 3,761 / 4,114 |
| Provincial Governors | 25 / 25 |
| Website | |
| cpp.org.kh | |
TheCambodian People's Party (CPP;Khmer:គណបក្សប្រជាជនកម្ពុជា,romanized: Keanapak Pracheachon Kampuchea[keanapaʔprɑciəcɔnkampuciə]) is apolitical party in Cambodia which has ruled the country since1979. Founded in 1951, it was originally known as theKampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).[a]
During theCold War it allied itself withVietnam and theSoviet Union, in contrast to the pro-ChineseCommunist Party of Kampuchea led byPol Pot.[16] After toppling theKhmer Rouge'sDemocratic Kampuchea regime with the Vietnamese-backed liberation ofPhnom Penh, it became the ruling party of thePeople's Republic of Kampuchea (1979–1989), which was later renamed the State of Cambodia (1989–1991). The party's current name was adopted during the final year of the State of Cambodia, when the party abandoned theone-party system andMarxism–Leninism.
Originally rooted incommunist and Marxist–Leninist ideologies, the party took on a morereformist outlook in the mid-1980s underHeng Samrin. In 1991, the CPP officially dropped its commitment tosocialism, and has since embraced amixed economy. Along with some major parties of the European centre-right, the CPP is a member of theCentrist Democrat International. It presents itself as abig tent of supporters of the Prime MinisterHun Sen.[12] Nevertheless, the party met with theSocialist International in 2004 and remains a close ally of theCommunist Party of Vietnam.[17] The CPP claims an official membership of more than 7 million members, making it one of thelargest political parties in the world.[4]
The party's rule has been described asauthoritarian.[24]
Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party បក្សប្រជាជនបដិវត្តន៍កម្ពុជា។ | |
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| General Secretary |
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| Founded | 5 January 1979 (modern organization) (46 years, 323 days) |
| Dissolved | 1991; 34 years ago (1991) |
| Preceded by | Communist Party of Kampuchea |
| Succeeded by | Cambodian People's Party |
| Headquarters | Phnom Penh,Cambodia |
| Youth wing | People's Revolutionary Youth Union of Kampuchea |
| Armed wing | Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Armed Forces |
| Ideology | Communism Marxism–Leninism Buddhist socialism Pro-Vietnam Anti-Khmer Rouge |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Slogan | "ភាពជាអ្នកជិតខាងល្អ មិត្តភាពប្រពៃណី កិច្ចសហប្រតិបត្តិការគ្រប់ជ្រុងជ្រោយ និងនិរន្តរភាពយូរអង្វែង" ("Good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability") |
| Party flag | |
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Nationalists in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos held the belief that to successfully liberate themselves fromFrance they needed to work together; the nationalists formed the supranationalIndochinese Communist Party (ICP) to oppose the French in 1930.
However, the triumph of the Japanese during the early stage ofWorld War II crippled French rule and helped to nurture nationalism in all three Indochinese countries. Consequently, the idea of an Indochinese-wide party was submerged in the rhetoric of fierce nationalism. In Cambodia, growing nationalist sentiment and national pride married historical mistrust and fear of neighbouring countries, which turned out to be a stumbling block for the ICP. On 28 June 1951, the Cambodian nationalists who struggled to free Cambodia fromFrench colonial rule split from the ICP to form theKampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP).
In 1955, the KPRP established a subsidiary party named thePracheachon in order to run in the national election that year. The name of the party was changed to theWorkers' Party of Kampuchea (WPK) on 28 September 1960 and then to theCommunist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) in 1966. Members of the CPK moved the party's headquarters toRatanakiri Province, where they were termed "Khmer Rouge" by PrinceNorodom Sihanouk.
In early 1979, the Cambodian communists who overthrew theKhmer Rouge's regime to end the genocide held a congress. At this gathering, they declared themselves the true successors of the original KPRP founded in 1951 and labelled the congress as the Third Party Congress, thus not recognizing the 1963, 1975 and 1978 congresses of CPK as legitimate. The party considered 28 June 1951 as its founding date. A national committee led by Pen Sovan and Roh Samai was appointed by the Congress. The women's wing of the party, the National Association of Women for the Salvation of Kampuchea, was also established in 1979 with a vast national network of members that extended to the district level.
The existence of the party was kept secret until its 4th congress in May 1981, when it appeared publicly and assumed the name KPRP. The name-change was stated to be carried out "to clearly distinguish it from the reactionary Pol Pot party and to underline and reassert the continuity of the party's best traditions".
As of 1990, members of the Politburo were Heng Samrin (General Secretary),Chea Sim,Hun Sen,Chea Soth,Math Ly,Tea Banh,Men Sam An,Nguon Nhel,Sar Kheng,Bou Thang,Ney Pena,Say Chhum and alternate members included Sing Song,Sim Ka andPol Saroeun. Members of the Secretariat wereHeng Samrin,Say Phouthang,Bou Thang, Men Sam An and Sar Kheng.
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In 1991, the party was renamed to theCambodian People's Party (CPP) during a United Nations-sponsored peace and reconciliation process. Politburo and the Secretariat to enter into the new Standing Committee, Chea Sim as President and Hun Sen as Vice-president. Despite being rooted in socialism, the party adopted a pragmatic approach in order to keep power. For instance, the CPP played a major role in Cambodian peace negotiation process, which led to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on 23 October 1991 and the creation of the second Kingdom of Cambodia. The CPP ousted Nodorom Ranariddh in a coup in 1997, leaving the party with no serious opposition. Thirty-two people died in the coup.
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Under CPP rule, Cambodia transitioned into a lower-middle-income economy in 2016. The party aims to turn Cambodia into a higher-middle-income country by 2030 and high-income country by 2050. Ideologically, an increasing number of CPP senior leaders claim that the Cambodian ruling party has adopted a centrist position. They believe that the CPP presents amiddle path between capitalism and communism, with emphasis on the values and principles ofsocial market economy along with social and environmental protection, and Buddhist humanism. However, academics such as John Ciorciari have observed that the CPP still continues to maintain its communist-era party structures and that many of its top-ranking members were derived from KPRP. Also, despite Hun Sen being only the deputy leader of the party until 2015, he had de facto control of the party.
Political scientists Radek Buben, Elvin Franisco Rodríguez Fabilena and Karel Kouba classify the CPP under Hun Sen as left-wing, comparing it to theSandinista National Liberation Front in terms of both authoritarian governance and representing formerly far-left revolutionary organizations that transitioned into a more reformist type of governance.[13] The Palgrave Handbook of Political Norms in Southeast Asia described the CPP as "leftist conservatives".[14] The party was also described as "left-leaning" in aDeutsche Welle article in 2012.[25] Sreinith Ten also argues that the party "had embedded the legacy of communism based on Marxist-Leninist ideology", and continues to cling onto socialist-oriented rhetoric and policies to maintain legitimacy, such as through promotinggender egalitarianism and establishing state-backed organizations such as the Kampuchea Revolutionary Women's Association.[26] The CPP hosted aSocialist International meeting in 2004, remains a close ally of theCommunist Party of Vietnam, and most of the party members are former communists.[17] The CPP also retains socialist party organisation.[27]
It won 64 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly in the1998 elections, 73 seats in the2003 elections and 90 seats in the2008 elections, winning the popular vote by the biggest margin ever for a National Assembly election with 58% of the vote. The CPP also won the 2006 Senate elections. The party lost 22 seats in the2013 elections, with opposition gained. Since2018 Cambodian general election, the party commands all 125 seats in the National Assembly, and 58 of 62 seats in the Senate. The main opposition, theCambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was banned before the election.[28] Hun Sen, the former Prime Minister of Cambodia, has served as the CPP's President since 2015.
| President of the Cambodian People's Party | |
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| ប្រធានគណបក្សប្រជាជនកម្ពុជា | |
Emblem of the Cambodian People's Party | |
 | |
| Type | Party leader |
| Seat | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
| Formation | 28 June 1951; 74 years ago (1951-06-28) |
| First holder | Tou Samouth (as General Secretary) |
| Deputy | Vice President |
KPRP (General Secretary) CPP (President)
| No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | Office held | Vice President | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Duration | ||||||
| 1 | Tou Samouth ទូ សាមុត (1915–1962) | 21 September 1951 | 30 September 1960 | 9 years, 9 days | ― | ― | ||
| 2 | Pen Sovan ប៉ែន សុវណ្ណ (1936–2016) | 5 January 1979 | 5 December 1981 | 2 years, 334 days | Minister of Defence (1979–1981) Prime Minister (1981) | ― | ||
| 3 |  | Heng Samrin ហេង សំរិន (born 1934) | 5 December 1981 | 17 October 1991 | 9 years, 316 days | Chairman of the People's Revolutionary Council (1979–1981),President of the Council of State (1981–1992),President of the National Assembly (2006–2023) | ― | |
| 4 |  | Chea Sim ជា ស៊ីម (1932–2015) | 17 October 1991 | 8 June 2015† | 23 years, 234 days | Chairman of the National Assembly (1981–1993), President of the Council of State (1992–1993),President of the Senate (1999–2015) | Hun Sen | |
| 5 |  | Hun Sen ហ៊ុន សែន (born 1952) | 20 June 2015 | Present | 10 years, 157 days | Minister of Foreign Affairs (1979–1986, 1988–1990), Prime Minister (1985–2023),President of the Senate (2024–) | Sar Kheng | |
| Say Chhum | ||||||||
| Men Sam An | ||||||||
| Tea Banh | ||||||||
| Hun Manet | ||||||||
The party is headed by a 34-member Permanent Committee, commonly referred to as thePolitburo (after its former Communist namesake). The current members are (with their party positions in brackets):
| Year | Party leader | Candidate | Votes | Seats | Position | Government | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± | # | ± | |||||
| 1981 | Pen Sovan | 2,898,709 | 90.3 | New | 117 / 117 | New | 1st | KPRP | |
| 1993 | Chea Sim | Hun Sen | 1,533,471 | 38.2 |  52.1 | 51 / 120 | 66 | 2nd | FUNCINPEC–CPP–BLDP–MOULINAKA |
| 1998 | 2,030,790 | 41.4 | 3.2 | 64 / 122 | 13 | 1st | CPP–FUNCINPEC | ||
| 2003 | 2,447,259 | 47.3 | 5.9 | 73 / 123 | 9 |  1st | CPP–FUNCINPEC | ||
| 2008 | 3,492,374 | 58.1 | 10.8 | 90 / 123 | 17 | 1st | CPP–FUNCINPEC | ||
| 2013 | 3,235,969 | 48.8 | 9.3 | 68 / 123 | 22 | 1st | CPP | ||
| 2018 | Hun Sen | 4,889,113 | 76.8 | 28.0 | 125 / 125 | 57 | 1st | CPP | |
| 2023 | Hun Sen | Hun Manet | 6,398,311 | 82.3 | 5.5 | 120 / 125 | 5 | 1st | CPP |
| Year | Leader | Votes | Chiefs | Councillors | Position | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± | # | ± | # | ± | |||
| 2002[29] | Hun Sen | 2,647,849 | 60.9 | New | 1,598 / 1,621 | New | 7,552 / 11,261 | New | 1st |
| 2007[30] | 3,148,533 | 60.8 | 0.1 | 1,591 / 1,621 | 7 | 7,993 / 11,353 | 441 | 1st | |
| 2012[31] | 3,631,082 | 61.8 | 1.0 | 1,592 / 1,633 | 1 | 8,292 / 11,459 | 299 | 1st | |
| 2017[32] | 3,540,056 | 50.8 | 11.0 | 1,156 / 1,646 | 436 | 6,503 / 11,572 | 1,789 | 1st | |
| 2022[33] | 5,378,773 | 74.3 | 23.5 | 1,648 / 1,652 | 492 | 9,376 / 11,622 | 2,873 | 1st | |
| Year | Candidate | Votes | Seats | Position | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | ± | # | ± | |||
| 2006 | Chea Sim | 7,854 | 69.2 | — | 45 / 61 | 14 | 1st |
| 2012 | 8,880 | 77.8 | 8.6 | 46 / 61 | 1 | 1st | |
| 2018 | Say Chhum | 11,202 | 95.9 | 18.1 | 58 / 62 | 12 | 1st |
| 2024 | Hun Sen | 10,052 | 85.9 | 10.0 | 55 / 62 | 3 | 1st |
This is rooted in an anti-Communist analysis opposing the incumbent, formerly Communist, Cambodian People's Party (CPP), and perceived foreign Communist influence over it.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)The CPP presents itself as abig tent in which any opponent is welcome, as long as they divest themselves of political ambitions, humbly accept their place in the scheme of ksae, and recognize the leadership and superior omnaich of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Similar to Ortega, Hun Sen gradually obtained a full control of a once factious and internally divided left wing CPP, outlawed all genuine opposition, suppressing protests and civil society (Sutton 2018, Conochie 2023).
But, the rift is not between the CPP and the opposition: the rift is between the conservatives—whether leftist, represented by the CPP, or rightist, represented by the FUNCINPEC and part of the opposition represented by Kem Sokha—and, on the other side, the SRP, which represents the real Republicans and anti-royalist, anti-monarchy people.
Cambodian experts say the merger of the two main opposition parties has worried Prime Minister Hun Sen's left-leaning Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which has been in power since 1979.
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