Ruling CPP the only party campaigning for July 29 Cambodia election

(7 Jul 2018) Campaigning officially began Saturday for Cambodia's July 29 general election, with Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling party virtually assured victory because the only credible opposition party was dissolved last year.
Hun Sen, who has led the country for more than three decades, launched his Cambodian People's Party's campaign for the polls at a rally in Phnom Penh.
His speech said if his government is returned to office, it will deliver continued economic development in one of the poorest nations in Asia.
Hun Sen's party claimed that 60,000 people turned out for its rally.
The main opposition force, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was dissolved last year by court order in what was generally considered a political maneuver by the ruling party.
The opposition group's members are urging a boycott of the election.
Twenty parties are contesting the polls but most are tiny and underfunded and others seen as being sponsored by the ruling party in an effort to give the impression of a free and fair election.
The election is Cambodia's sixth since 1993, when the United Nations helped stage the country's first free polls after the 1975-79 genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge and civil war.
Hun Sen, 67, has repeatedly said he intends to serve at least two more five-year terms.
His authoritarian rule has given him a stranglehold over the state bureaucracy that makes any challenge to his authority difficult.
While he can justifiably boast of having restored peace and stability after decades of war and unrest and promoting economic growth, his critics point out that corruption and injustice have also grown, especially reflected in widespread land-grabbing.

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