I wrote that the government was making up new bureaucratic obstacles to try to prevent the risk of any real opposition party being able to contest the national elections due on July 23.
It is now clear that the only real opposition party, the Candlelight Party (CLP), has been definitively banned from participating in the elections. The pretext given by the government via the National Election Committee (NEC) is purely administrative and escapes all logic. The country is plunged into a Kafkaesque universe typical of totalitarian regimes.
The autocratic prime minister Hun Sen, in power for 38 years, betrays his fears for the survival of his regime by resorting to such a gross procedure to prevent the CLP at the last moment from participating.
