Cambodians vote Sunday for all 125 seats in the country's National Assembly. Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party is expected to stay in power. The party has won every election for the past 20 years.İn the 2013 election, the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (or CNRP) disputed the results. It accused the ruling party of fraud and refused to enter parliament to claim its 55 seats.

The boycott set off protests against the government that resulted in violent attacks on demonstrators by security forces. The protests ended in July 2014 when the opposition party met with government officials and agreed to enter parliament.

Since then, the government has put intense pressure on the opposition. Its leader Sam Rainsy was accused of insulting the government and lost his parliamentary right. He is barred from returning to Cambodia or running in elections.

İn February 2017, Rainsy gave leadership of the opposition party to Kem Sokha. Seven months later, Kem was arrested and accused of planning a U.S.-backed revolution in Cambodia. While 20 parties are expected to run in Sunday's election, the CNRP was seen as the only serious threat to Hun Sen's party and leadership.

The United Nations has called the election “flawed” because of the government’s actions against the CNRP and its leaders. The United States and the European Union have withdrawn financial support for the election.

The Cambodian government has also pressured independent media in the past year. The Cambodia Daily newspaper announced in September that it would go out of business after getting a $6.3 million tax bill. The newspaper's publishers said the tax bill was driven by politics.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”