Polls close in Cambodia’s general election

Polls have closed in Cambodia’s general election, amid criticism from some that the vote was neither free nor fair in the absence of any significant challenger to strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Critics have called the vote a sham as the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which narrowly lost the last election, has been dissolved.
The US and EU are among those who have questioned the credibility of the vote.
But the ruling Cambodian People’s Party says 19 other parties are standing.
On Friday, the Cambodian government ordered internet service providers in the country to block a number of independent news websites, including Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and Voice of Democracy.
It also singled out a post on the German version of the image-sharing site Pinterest, which had specifically referenced the Cambodia National Rescue Party.
English newspaper outlets were among other sites blocked.
As part of a large UN peacekeeping mission, Cambodia held its first multi-party elections in decades in 1993 after years of bloodshed and war.
Some two million people are estimated to have died between 1975 and 1979 when the country was ruled by the radical communists of the Khmer Rouge.
Hun Sen, a former soldier in the Khmer Rouge who later opposed them, has presided over a sustained period of rapid economic growth.
He has long been accused of using the courts and security forces to crush dissent and intimidate critics, but has for years allowed some measure of political opposition to his CPP party.
The election is the country’s sixth since 1993 when it emerged from decades of war. Officials at a polling station in Phnom Penh declared voting over at 3 p.m. local time (0800 GMT).
Preliminary results are expected around 6 p.m. local time. Official results will not be available until mid-August.

Zainab Sa’id