The United States said it was pausing some foreign assistance programs in Cambodia and imposing visa bans on individuals it says undermined democracy after the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) declared a landslide victory in elections on Sunday.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement that Washington was “troubled” that the elections, in which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CPP faced no viable opponent were “neither free nor fair.”
“Ahead of the elections, Cambodian authorities engaged in a pattern of threats and harassment against the political opposition, media, and civil society that undermined the spirit of the country’s constitution and Cambodia’s international obligations,” Miller said.
