8/12/2018

CAMBODIA ONE-PARTY'S CAMBODIA


ONE-PARTY RULE ''terrible setback'' for Cambodia : Opposition Chief.

The co-founder of Cambodia's disbanded opposition has decried the landslide victory of Hun Sen's ruling party in an ''uncontested poll as a terrible setback'', urging a campaign of non-cooperation with the next government.

A provisional count from one recent Sunday's poll has handed the Cambodia's People Party of strongman Hun Sen, who has ruled for more than three decades, all 125 parliamentary seats  -cementing the country's status as a one-party state.

The election was held without the only credible opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which was barred from running after it was dissolved by the  Supreme Court last year.

''It's a fake victory.........a fake election, with a foregone conclusion,'' said CNRP co-founder Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-exile  in Paris to avoid a slew of convictions he contends are politically motivated.

''It is a return to the old-system, the one-party system, like during the Cold War, during the  Communist times........it is a terrible set-back for Cambodia,'' he told AFP in an interview given in France's southern province region.

Hun Sen has hailed Sunday's vote as ''free, fair and just,'' with the party saying the estimated 82 percent turnout made of mockery CNRP calls for a boycott.

On Wednesday later, his first public appearance since the electoral endorsement, Cambodia's ruler since 1985 said he is eyeing ''big success'' this year in ''building the economy ....and democracy''.

But critics say the poll was held against a backdrop of local-level intimidation while dissenting voices in the media and civil society had been quieted in the run-up to the vote. [Agencies]

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