Prior to the election, Cambodia changes the law to prevent future candidates from being non-voters

PHnom Penh: As a result of Prime Minister Hun Sen's efforts to crush all opposition, critics have claimed that next month's election will be a sham and as a result, the Cambodian parliament unanimously approved an amendment to the election law on Friday that will punish anyone who abstains from the vote.

Hun Sen, who has been in charge of Cambodia for more than 30 years, gave the rubber-stamp parliament last week the order to change the law so that anyone who does not cast a ballot in the general election on July 23 will be disqualified from running in any future elections.

Sar Kheng, the deputy prime minister and interior minister, posted a statement on his official Facebook page following the vote in parliament that read in part, "... Individuals wishing to stand for election must participate in voting events prior to their mandate."

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"The amendments impose fines and punish individuals who disrupt and obstruct the voter registration process...(and) the election," he continued.

Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP), which received 4.8 million of the 6.9 million votes cast, won every parliamentary seat in the most recent election, which took place in 2018.

No overt calls to boycott the election have been made, but detractors have expressed concern over what they perceive to be a campaign of intimidation and public threats by Hun Sen and the CPP ahead of an election they are certain to win.

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Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch stated that "civil rights and political liberty have been completely, totally restricted by Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government," adding that "this really shows that this is a dictatorship that is playing in the democracy game."

The Hun Sen administration claims it is upholding the law and denies picking on its rivals.

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Early this month, the election commission warned that anyone who encouraged others not to cast a ballot would face fines or even imprisonment. Following the election commission's disqualification of the sole opposition Candlelight Party due to incomplete paperwork, the CPP will run virtually unopposed next month.