On Monday, Cambodia’s electoral commission decided to to exclude since the upcoming general elections in July the country’s main opposition party, which is called the Candlelight Party. According to the commission, the party did not submit the documents necessary to participate in the vote within the deadline.
Cambodia has been governed authoritarianly since 1985 by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has long been accused of cracking down on dissent. Hun Sen, who is 70, is a former commander of the Khmer Rouge, the followers of the Cambodian Communist Party, who between 1975 and 1979 imposed a violent dictatorship during which around 2 million people were killed (a quarter of the entire Cambodian population). In nearly 40 years in power with his People’s Party, he has transformed Cambodia into an authoritarian regime, and his government has been accused on several occasions of using the courts and the security forces to intimidate political opponents and repress the dissidents.
Already in the 2018 elections, the main opposition party, the National Ransom Party, of which the Candlelight Party is considered a direct continuation, was excluded from the vote. A few weeks ago Kem Sokha, former president of the National Redemption Party, was sentenced to 27 years in prison for treason: he was found guilty of planning to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen.