A/HRC/39/73 elections passed peacefully with few reported irregularities, setting new benchmarks for transparency in electoral processes in Cambodia. There were nonetheless significant reports of restrictions placed on political parties and the media as well as threats and intimidation prior to the election. The National Assembly adopted a series of amendments to laws affecting political processes in the last year. Amendments made to the Law on Political Parties in March 2017 were reported in the previous report (see A/HRC/36/61, para. 8). These new powers have been invoked. 67. The founder and President of the Khmer Power Party, Sourn Serey Ratha, was detained in August 2017 following a Facebook post criticizing the military’s deployment near the border with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. He was convicted of incitement and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. A new President, Soung Sophorn, was swiftly appointed to ensure that the party did not come into conflict with the amended Law on Political Parties. Also in August, Nhek Bun Chhay, President of the Khmer National United Party, was arrested in connection with 10-year-old allegations of drug production. He had previously been a commander in the armed forces and, until June 2017, had held the post of adviser to the Government. The only non-CPP/CNRP commune chief to be elected on 4 June was a member of his party. He was released under judicial supervision in May 2018. 68. In July 2017, the National Assembly introduced the next set of amendments to the Law on Political Parties preventing any political party from associating with or using the voice messages, images, written documents or activities of a person convicted of a felony or misdemeanour. Any party so doing can be banned from political activities for five years, prohibited from involvement in elections or even dissolved. 69. As the Special Rapporteur reported in her oral presentation to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-sixth session, the leader of CNRP, Kem Sokha, was arrested on charges related to comments he had made in 2013 about his grass-roots political strategy to challenge the current Government. He was subsequently charged with conspiracy with a foreign Power, an act implying “fomenting hostilities or acts of aggression against Cambodia”; the foreign Power was allegedly the United States of America. He remains in pretrial detention in Correctional Centre 3. The Special Rapporteur was refused permission to meet with him in March 2018. 70. In October 2017, following the receipt of complaints from FUNCINPEC (National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Cooperative Cambodia) and the Cambodian Youth Party, the Ministry of Interior submitted a request to the Supreme Court, under the amendments to the Law on Political Parties, to dissolve CNRP. At the same time, while the case was being considered, amendments to a range of electoral laws were passed that provided a process for reallocating seats won by a party that had been dissolved. 71. On 16 November 2017, the Supreme Court dissolved CNRP and banned 118 senior members of the opposition from political activity for five years. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the evidence provided by the Ministry of Interior, and relied upon by the Supreme Court in its decision to dissolve CNRP, was in part the same evidence that is currently before the investigating judge in respect of the charges against Kem Sokha. The Supreme Court’s judgment does not contest that evidence and no defence was submitted by CNRP, raising serious concerns as to the basis for the decision to dissolve the party. 72. Many CNRP party members have since fled the country, and members have reported intimidation by the authorities and pressure to “defect” to the ruling CPP. 73. After the party was dissolved, the National Election Committee redistributed the National Assembly seats won by CNRP in 2013. Three parties accepted seats (FUNCINPEC, the Cambodian Nationality Party and the Khmer Economic Development Party); two parties refused (the League for Democracy Party and the Khmer Anti-Poverty Party), and the seats were reallocated to CPP. 74. Commune/sangkat positions won by CNRP (over 43 per cent of the total) in the June 2017 election were also reallocated by the Committee in December 2017. CPP gained most of the positions: 4,548 of the 5,007 CNRP councillor positions and all 489 CNRP commune chief positions. Of the remaining commune councillor positions, 240 were given 14