What is "funcinpec"

FUNCINPEC is a royalist political party in Cambodia. Founded in 1981 by Norodom Sihanouk, it started off as a resistance movement against the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) government. In 1982, it formed a resistance pact, the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) together with the Khmer People's National Liberation Front (KPNLF) and the Khmer Rouge. It was one of the signatory parties of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, which paved the way for the formation of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). In 1992, FUNCINPEC became a political party and participated in the 1993 general elections organised by UNTAC. It won the elections, and formed a coalition government with the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), with which it jointly headed. Norodom Ranariddh, Sihanouk's son who had succeeded him as the party president, became First Prime Minister while Hun Sen, who was from the CPP, became Second Prime Minister.

In July 1997, violent clashes occurred between factional forces separately allied to FUNCINPEC and the CPP, leading to Ranariddh's ouster from his position as First Prime Minister. Ranariddh subsequently returned from exile in March 1998, and led the party to the 1998 general elections, which was won by CPP with FUNCINPEC as the first runner-up. Subsequently, FUNCINPEC joined CPP again, this time as a junior partner in a coalition government. Ranariddh was appointed as the President of the National Assembly, a post which he held until 2006 when he was ousted from FUNCINPEC by the party's former secretary-general Nhek Bun Chhay. At the same time, FUNCINPEC continued to see its share of voters and seats in the national assembly drop over the general elections of 2003, 2008 and 2013, with the party failing to win a single seat in the National Assembly at the 2013 general elections. In January 2015, Ranariddh returned to FUNCINPEC, who was re-appointed as the party's president.