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Cambodia has been accused of “killing off democracy” after the country’s supreme court dissolved the opposition party and outlawed more than 100 politicians ahead of a general election.

Thursday’s ruling to disband the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) was widely expected amid the most severe crackdown on freedom and human rights in two decades.

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The government of Hun Sen, the prime minister and a firebrand former Khmer Rouge fighter who has held office for 32 years, had already accused the CNRP of plotting a U.S.-backed revolution. The party’s leader, Kem Sokha, was jailed in September.

After a horrific genocide in the Seventies, when the Khmer Rouge under dictator Pol Pot killed as many as three million people, Cambodia has functioned nominally as a democracy since 1993. Analysts say the dissolution of the opposition reveals Sen’s desire to cling to power after a surge in the CNRP’s popularity.