MPs back change that bars Hun Sen's rival

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's parliament amended a law today to stop anyone convicted of an offence from running for office, effectively barring long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen's main rival.
Critics said that the changes approved would undermine the multi-party democracy established by 1991 peace accords and could turn Cambodia into a de facto one-party state.
Opponents accuse Hun Sen (pix), a former Khmer Rouge guerilla, of unfair manoeuvring to try to retain his three-decade grip on power at local elections in June and a general election next year.
The ruling Cambodian People's Party voted to change the 1998 election law to empower the supreme court to dissolve any party which violates the constitution, "incites" the public or whose leaders are convicted of a crime.
Politicians convicted by a court are banned from standing for election.
That would exclude veteran opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who has been convicted of a series of defamation charges and has lived in exile in France since 2015 to avoid them.
He resigned from the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) this month, saying he wanted to save his party in the face of the potential ban. He rejects the charges against him as politically motivated.
The CNRP's 55 lawmakers boycotted the National Assembly vote today, saying it had targeted them.
But Hun Sen's party has a slim majority in parliament so it was able to pass the change.
Welcoming the change to the election rules, ruling party lawmaker Chheang Vun said it would allow the interior ministry to start closing some of Cambodia's 76 political parties. He said only 45 were properly registered.
The amendments must pass the senate and receive the king's assent, but both are seen as formalities.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Parliamentarians for Human Rights group called it the "death knell for democracy" in Cambodia.
New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it marked the consolidation of absolute power.
"Cambodia will become a sham democracy going forward," its deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said.
"The silence of foreign governments and aid donors to this move has been profoundly disheartening."
Cambodia has been transformed during Hun Sen's rule from what was essentially a failed state after decades of conflict. – Reuters