Voters headed to the polls in Cambodia on Sunday July 29,2018 in an election Prime Minister Hun Sen is expected to easily win, extending his 30-plus years in power, after the main opposition party was dissolved and the government cracked down on critics.
Hun Sen’s opponents have called for an election boycott, saying that without any real opposition to the government, the poll will be a sham.
Critics say the election marks the decimation of democracy in the Southeast Asian country following months of intimidation by the ruling party Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) by the Supreme Court. Many CNRP leaders have fled abroad and are living in self-imposed exile and its leader, Kem Sokha, was jailed in September 2017 on treason charges.
The opposition CNRP, appealing to younger voters and those seeking change, narrowly lost the last general election in 2013.
The government insists that the 2018 vote will be free and fair. “This election is about the Cambodian people’s will and power,” government spokesman Phay Siphan said
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