The Sam Rainsy Party elected its first woman as secretary general of the party on
December 25. Mu Sochua, a former minister of women's affairs from 1998 through 2003,
quit the royalist Funcinpec party in 2004 and joined the SRP. According to an SRP
release, Sochua received 44 votes from the 61 members of the SRP Central committee
to 15 votes against, and two invalid votes.