The preliminary results of Cambodia's June 4 local elections for its commune councils offer ambiguous signals for an all-important general election scheduled for July 2018.
Much depends on the choice of benchmark. In the 2012 elections for commune council chiefs, Prime Minister Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party secured overwhelming control of local government, winning 1,592 contests with more than 70% of the vote, compared with just 40 contests won by opposition parties, which secured about 30% of the vote.
