Japan sent election monitors to Cambodian elections in 1993, 1998, 2003 and 2008, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said it would not be doing so this time.
VOA Khmer's Aun Chhengpor recently sat down with Suos Yara, a CPP lawmaker, and spokesman, to talk about the ruling party’s definition of electoral democracy.
Cambodians will vote on Sunday in an election that has been criticized as a one-horse race with Prime Minister Hun Sen expected to win.
The criticism came after Rhona Smith questioned the targeting of election boycott campaigners by the Cambodian authorities.
It's not clear to what extent such a ruling has a basis in Cambodian law.
The Interior Minister said Cambodians who were found to have taken part in the campaign would be fined up to 20 million riels (about $5,000).
The Center for Strategic and International Studies report found that the Cambodian courts were the main tool used by the authorities to clamp down on civil society groups the authorities saw as challenging.
The four tycoons identified by Global Witness are Mong Reththy, Ly Yong Phat, Try Pheap and Lao Meng Khin.
The leaders pointed to the One Belt, One Road initiative, a Chinese initiative that will connect the economies of Southeast Asia with large infrastructure projects.
Three former opposition party officials in Battambang province have been reported to the National Election Committee by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) over a post on Facebook in which they endorsed an election boycott known as the Clean Finger Campaign.
NEC has registered 107 domestic groups, which will be dominated by the Union of Youth Federations of Cambodia (UYFC), an organization led by Hun Many, the prime minister’s son and a lawmaker for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP).
Hang Puthea, NEC spokesman, said the messages were intended to remind political parties that they must comply with the law, adding that some political parties had already received fines for violations.
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