Hun Sen

The Cambodian leader will not release his grip until the planned leadership transition to his son Hun Manet has been fully completed.

The Cambodian leader is using his rival as a bargaining chip in anticipation of his clean sweep at July's national election.

The Candlelight Party has been barred for failing to submit its original party registration document from 1998.

More revolutionary plots are alleged ahead of the July 23 poll.

Since the 1990s, accusations of foreign interference have occupied a privileged position in the Cambodian leader's rhetorical arsenal.

The National Election Committee has refused to accept the Candlelight Party's election registration, opening the way to another clean sweep by PM Hun Sen's CPP.

By tangling up the country’s one significant opposition party in tailor-made bureaucracy, the long-ruling leader is hoping to replicate the one-horse race of 2018.

However, nine parties' applications have yet to be approved, including the Candlelight Party, the only one with any chance of challenging Prime Minister Hun Sen's CPP.

Even if Cambodia's leader steps back from his formal duties as prime minister, it is hard to see him abandoning politics altogether.

As July's election approaches, a growing number of opposition officials are following the well-worn path into Prime Minister Hun Sen's CPP.

Elections perform functions beyond simply designating a winner, and in that sense Cambodia’s polls will send important signals.