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Cambodian PM elected as ruling party chief

Xinhua, June 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, vice president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), was elected as the party president on Saturday after the incumbent Chea Sim died on June 8, a party senior official said.

"The Central Committee of the CPP had voted to appoint Hun Sen as the chairman of the party with 506 voices out of 507," CPP senior official and information minister Khieu Kanharith wrote on his Facebook page after the party's closed-door congress.

He said Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sar Kheng, who is a brother-in-law of recently-deceased Chea Sim, and Senate president and CPP's secretary-general Say Chhum were elected as the party's vice presidents.

The party's election came after CPP president and Senate president Chea Sim died on June 8 at the age of 83 due to illness.

Chheang Vannarith, co-founder and chairman of the Cambodian Institute for Strategic Studies, said Saturday that the election of Hun Sen as the party chief signified stronger leadership within the CPP.

"It allows Prime Minister Hun Sen to speed up his reform agenda and strengthen the organizational structure and functional institutions of the party," he told Xinhua.

"However, he needs to double his efforts in reforming both the state and party institutions." Endi