Prince Norodom Ranariddh, a former prime minister and a half-brother of the king, Norodom Sihamoni, has emerged from a two-year retirement to retake the helm of his Norodom Ranariddh Party (NRP). On December 12th Prince Ranariddh, who is chief adviser to the king, said that he was making a political comeback because the NRP was in disarray. There are clear signs that the royalists are indeed a spent force, with Prince Ranariddh squandering much of the public support for royalists inherited from his father, the previous monarch, Norodom Sihanouk. Prince Ranariddh announced his retirement from politics in October 2008 after a dismal performance in the general election held in that year, when the NRP won a mere two seats in the 123-member National Assembly (the lower house of parliament).

Once a powerful politician, Prince Ranariddh was declared joint prime minister with Hun Sen following the 1993 election, when he won a majority of votes. In 1997 he was ousted in a military coup, leaving Hun Sen in sole charge. Prince Ranariddh later returned to Cambodia, but his former party, the National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful and Co-operative Cambodia (FUNCINPEC), steadily declined in importance, with many of its members either defecting to or falling under the influence of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP). Prince Ranariddh was eventually voted out as chairman of FUNCINPEC in 2006, prompting him to found a political party bearing his own name-a tactic also used by the opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, and a move generally regarded as an attempt to avoid being ousted as party head by political scheming.