PHNOM PENH, July 1, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen kicked
off a three-week election campaign on Saturday, with his party poised to
sweep the one-sided contest after the top challenger was barred from taking
part.

Cambodians will vote on July 23 in an election widely seen as a sham after
authorities denied registration to the Candlelight Party -- considered the
only viable rival to Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party.

Hun Sen -- who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years -- told a sea of tens of
thousands of supporters dressed in party t-shirts and hats that his
government would build more roads and schools while boosting wages and
economic growth.

He also vowed to eradicate "hostile circles seeking to incite national
division, social chaos and political instability".

"If the Cambodian People's Party wins, the Cambodian people are the winners,"
he told the crowd.

Hun Sen -- one of the world's longest-serving leaders -- has hinted he will
retire in the near future.

He has backed his eldest son Hun Manet, a four-star general, to succeed him.

At Saturday's rally, he handed the party's flag to Hun Manet, who led a
convoy of scooters, cars and banner-festooned trucks carrying musical
performers on a procession through Phnom Penh's streets.

Party supporter Yin Linda said she hoped Hun Manet, who was educated in
Britain and the United States, would "bring new ideas from overseas to
develop our country's prosperity".

Hun Sen's party won every seat in the 2018 national election after a court
dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.

Human Rights Watch's Asia Division deputy director Phil Robertson dismissed
the election campaign as "Hun Sen going through the motions... claiming that
this is democracy in action".

"When in reality he's done everything possible to make sure he faces no real
opposition whatsoever," Robertson added.

"It's a stab in the back to the people of Cambodia. They don't have a choice.
It's more of the same."

- Opposition suppressed -

Cambodia's parliament last week approved laws to ban anyone who fails to vote
in this year's poll from running for office in future elections -- a move
that will affect Hun Sen's exiled rivals.

On the eve of the election campaign, Hun Sen, a prolific Facebook user, quit
the platform ahead of its parent company Meta announcing it would remove one
of his videos and was considering a recommendation to suspend his account.

The video, filmed in January, showed Hun Sen threatening his opponents with
legal action or a beating if they accused his party of vote theft in July's
polls.

The ruling on the video by Meta's Oversight Board said his speech contained
"unequivocal statements of intent to commit violence" against opposition
politicians.

Analysts say that China's political and financial support has emboldened Hun
Sen's unprecedented crackdown on political activists, the media and civil
society -- an assault spurred by major opposition gains in previous
elections.

Rights groups accuse Hun Sen of using the legal system to crush any
opposition, and scores of political opponents have been convicted during his
time in power.

Opposition leader Kem Sokha was sentenced in March to 27 years in prison and
placed under house arrest for treason over an alleged plot with foreigners to
topple Hun Sen's government.

Another opposition figure, Sam Rainsy, has been living in exile in France
since 2015 to avoid prison for convictions he says are politically motivated.