| By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Wednesday, May 28, 2008 |
Eleven parties will contest the July 27 polls compared to 23 parties that participated in the last general election in 2003, said Tep Nitha, secretary-general of Cambodia's National Election Committee.
"Only 11 parties have been officially endorsed for taking part in the election. This number will not change," Tep Nitha said.
Lack of financial resources was one of the main reasons that smaller parties decided against running in the upcoming election, Tep Nitha said.
Analysts say that smaller parties don't pose a serious challenge to Hun Sen, whose party has a firm grass-roots presence, easy access to state-controlled media and financial resources unmatched by its rivals.
Hun Sen's biggest challengers will be Sam Rainsy, the main opposition leader and head of the namesake Sam Rainsy Party, and Kem Sokha, head of the Human Rights Party. Kem Sokha is a former human rights activist the prime minister once had jailed in a politically motivated defamation lawsuit.
Hun Sen's party will likely add more parliamentary seats to its current 73, leaving a smaller number to be split among its opponents, said Kek Galabru, president of the Cambodian human rights group Licadho.
"I have no doubt about it. All the factors are in favor of the ruling party," she said.
Hun Sen was initially made Cambodia's prime minister in 1985 by the Vietnamese-installed government that took power after toppling the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. He became democratically elected in 1998 when his Cambodian People's Party won a general election.
More than 8 million out of the Cambodia's 14 million people are eligible to vote in the upcoming election, the election committee said.
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