PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s parliament voted unanimously to amend an election law on Friday to penalize anyone who boycotts next month’s poll, which critics have said will be a sham because of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s efforts to stamp out all opposition.
Hun Sen, who has held power in Cambodia for more than three decades, last week ordered the rubber-stamp parliament to revise the law so that anyone who does not vote in the general election on July 23 will be barred from contesting any future elections.
“... Individuals wishing to stand for election must participate in voting events prior to their mandate,” Sar Kheng, deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, said in a statement posted on his official Facebook page after the vote in parliament.
“The amendments impose fines and punish individuals who disrupt and obstruct the voter registration process...(and) the election,” he added.
At the last election in 2018, the Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) won all of the parliamentary seats, having scored 4.8 million votes out of the 6.9 million cast.
There have been no overt calls for an election boycott but critics have expressed alarm over what they see as a campaign of intimidation and public threats by Hun Sen and the CPP ahead of an election they are certain to dominate.
“This really shows that this is a dictatorship that is playing in the democracy game,” Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said, adding that “civil rights and political liberty have been completely, totally restricted by Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government.”
Hun Sen’s administration has denied targeting opponents and says it is enforcing the law.
The election commission said earlier this month that anyone urging people not to vote would be fined or imprisoned.
The CPP will run virtually unopposed next month, after the election commission disqualified the sole opposition Candlelight Party from running, citing improper paperwork.

SYDNEY: Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday the contested site of a proposed Russian embassy was secure, after it emerged a Russian diplomat was squatting on the land following the government’s decision to cancel the lease.
Earlier this month Australia passed a law to prevent Russia from moving its embassy from a Canberra suburb to a prime site close to parliament and the Chinese embassy, citing national security concerns.
The Australian newspaper reported on Thursday a Russian diplomat was squatting on the land under the watch of police, who are unable to arrest him as he has diplomatic immunity.
“Australia will stand up for our values and we will stand up for our national security, and a bloke standing in the cold on a bit of grass in Canberra is not a threat to our national security,” Albanese told a news conference on Friday.
“The site is secure and we are comfortable with our position.”
The Russian embassy in Canberra declined to comment.
Moscow on Wednesday barred 48 Australians from entering Russia, in what it said was retaliation for Australia’s own long-running sanctions regime against the country.