Treuy Koh commune, Kampot — Cambodia’s ruling party is preparing for local elections to be held in May, but few Cambodians appear to be paying much attention to what has become largely a sideshow after the Cambodian People’s Party banned the main opposition two years ago and handed their jobs to loyal officials.
In Treuy Koh commune, Kampot province, five seats are up for grabs. Pov Son, the CPP commune chief for the past 20 years, believes his colleagues will all vote for the ruling party, adding, “They have to vote for CPP since they are the members of CPP.”
More than 4,100 constituencies are being contested in total across the country’s 25 regions, but only the incumbent 11,500 commune councilors, many of whom were installed by the CPP in 2017, are eligible to vote.