the forest starts. to get. the news live from berlin cambodia as ruling party claims victory following elections condemned as an undemocratic sham after its crackdown on dissent the country's strongman ruler has extended his long grip on power but observers say the vote is illegitimate also coming up. former zimbabwean president robert mugabe takes aim at the party he led for decades and hints at supporting the opposition it

comes as involve way prepares for historic elections on monday we'll go live to harare. and california bad old days of enormous wildfires fueled by strong winds and high temperatures that killed at least five people and sent thousands fleeing for their lives. and welcome to the program ruling party in cambodia is claiming a landslide election victory can vote in people's party says it's one eighty percent of seats in parliament prime minister who in sand is expected to remain in office but critics are calling the election and sham as the only credible opposition party was outlawed prior to the vote they're accusing the prime minister of cracking down on dissent in

a bid to maintain his grip on more than three decades and power. ballots polling stations fingers stained with ink across cambodia voters went to the polls but with only one viable party in the running. and couldn't send the world's longest serving prime minister was not taking any chances this year. after nearly losing the vote five years ago to the cambodian national rescue party he took action to make sure they wouldn't threaten him again. the rival party was dissolved by court order its leader jailed for treason websites critical of his party were blocked. one sends only real worry this election day was that cambodians would answer the opposition's call for a boycott. anyone who opposes elections destroys the nation and democracy and should not be forgiven.

officially the boycott was averted cambodia's national election commission claims about eighty percent of registered voters cast their vote the opposition however believes that number is inflated former opposition leader sam rainsy now living in exile tweeted that no credible election observer would confirm an election process that was quote falsified from the outset. for a majority of cambodians one cent is the only leader they've known he began his career as a military commander for cambodia's camaro rouge but as the regime carried out genocide on its own people can send defected to vietnam to help overthrow his own government he was named prime minister of cambodia in one thousand nine hundred five when he lost the country's first elections in one thousand nine hundred three he dismissed the results and refused to step down. after thirty three years as prime minister he remains firmly at the helm. that. got it before there were so many competitors but now there's just one. tell me i

hope this country in the future will have a real democracy not fake. so counting appeared little more than a formality just six hours after polls closed the ruling party claimed victory for the sixth time. correspondent boston heartache is income bodie as capital phnom penh by stan the ruling party says there's been an eighty percent turnout considering there is no true opposition is this indicative of the support for the prime minister. what the government is trying to tell people and the reason why turnout is so important for them is of course because in the absence of an opposition they want to keep that illusion of this being a democratic process and the opposition party that was involved that year its leaders called for

a boycott of these elections saying because this is that would be for voters the way forward to express their dissatisfaction with the government and to protest what happened here in the run up to these elections that what happened. was that the government tried that there were numerous reports of local authorities officials. trying to urge voters to go to the polls and and a lot of people and a lot of people heeded that because these local authorities you have to understand they wield lot of power and if you you know if you get at loggerheads with them then they can really make your life miserable so a lot of people did turn out at the polling stations today but it doesn't mean that they were all they all did so in support of the government. that's in local and foreign rights groups say this vote is not credible you mention that as well the main opposition party was dissolved by the supreme court last year what can you tell us about the overall situation when it comes to limited dissent in the country

well politically that that's what they did they say they saw that party there but that wasn't all there is they shut down a lot of liberal media outlets in the country a lot of radio stations were shut down newspapers were shut down there were critical of the government or sold to people who are said to be loyal to the hunts and his regime and then also criticism was sipho critics were intimidated with the help of the judicial system which the ruling party has a lot of influence over abbey now with no real opposition to speak of what can we expect next for combo dhea. well so tonight on c.n.n. his regime they've they've strengthened their grip on power even further and that means that he can that he can keep working on on his succession he's already started putting in place his son one day to hand over power to him so this

doesn't this isn't both well for everyone who wants a more democratic cambodia and i think somebody at the night has taken a big step toward becoming an authoritarian state every day w. correspondent boston heartache reporting from cambodia thank you very much boston now some of the other stories making news around the world israel has released a seventeen year old palestinian from prison i had to mean he was jailed for eight months alongside her mother for slapping and kicking two israeli soldiers near her home in the west bank israel says she's being used by her family for political reasons for palestinians she has become a symbol of resistance at least fourteen people have been killed and more than one hundred sixty others injured in an earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok a six point four magnitude quake struck the northern part of the island which is

close to bali and popular with international tourists. a powerful typhoon has hit japan bringing heavy rains and winds of up to one hundred eighty kilometers per hour thousands of residents have been forced to leave their homes this season's twelve typhoon so far the storm has now weekend and it's moving west. thousands of nicaraguans have marched through the capitol mounted while in support of the roman catholic church and its bishops this after president daniel ortega accuse the church of aiding an attempted coup against him protesters chanted slogans in support of the bishops and called for ortega resignation. there have been reports of violence in the central african nation of mali as people there vote in a presidential election incumbent. was among the first to cast his ballot in the capital bamako he is seeking a second five year term his main rival is opposition candidate semei lessees say

a former finance minister there has also been unrest in the run up to the poll with the country battling ongoing ethnic violence and jihadism. on the eve of historic elections in zimbabwe and unexpected voice has spoken out about the vote in his country zimbabwe's former president robert mugabe suggested he would not vote in monday's election for the party he led for decades speaking in harare mugabe said his successor emerson man and dog walk wote illegally took power last year but he did encourage them bob wins to accept the election result a tight race is expected between man and god walk and main opposition candidate nelson chamisa correspondents melanie cora divel and ager increase sent us this report. all right we're going to actually go to adrian creases in zimbabwe's capital harare at the moment adrian the polls open on monday

is there a last minute push this hour to get every vote. well today's rather calm day here in our engines and bob where large because the constitution of the country does not allow political rallies to behold one day before the election spots around noon the big surprise came in when white surprisingly the former president robert mugabe invited the press to his residence. now earlier today you were at a press conference given by president mugabe the former president mugabe i should say why did he have to say well so the big news that came out in this press conference was that he said and i quote him i can't vote for those who have tremendous me and basically he says he was not going to vote for the zanu p.f. the ruling party in the country the party he actually founded mugabe you could see he was very bitter about it this guy he's ninety four years old a very old man when he was talking you could actually feel a little bit sorry for him because you have to recall what happened last year he's

been running the country for almost four decades and then last year the military decided to chase him out of the office his own party said he can not longer be the president and forced him to resign ever since then he has not really outspoken about what's happened but today he was really bitter he really bitterly complained about his own party about the way they treated him they said what they did was unconstitutional and what was quite interesting he said it was also undemocratic he said the country has has seen an undemocratic development in the last year and this was of course something very surprising to hear from a man who has run the country for almost four decades in the very way that people describe as dictatorship because he has suppressed the opposition elections that were often not free and fair so it is a very interesting statement for him to say that without any self reflection reflection and so it purchases him of his own time in office adrian there has been some talk and perhaps some concern with zanu p.f.

that emmerson man of god was connection or links with mugabe could hurt him in this election could mugabe's comments today swing the ball in any way. well mugabe's comments today will actually hurt emerson. because mugabe still has a lot of people who are standing behind him and those are people who were watching for zanu p.f. for a long time so it is quite likely that those people who might be influenced now to vote for the opposition because that's what mugabe says i can't vote for zanu p.f. i have to vote for the opposition in the beginning it was not very clear about it but later on he said the only chance for him for another candidate is and if mugabe says that other people might listen to him and that might of course play in the hands of the opposition during the election process tomorrow. correspondent adrian crease reporting from harare thank you very much. extreme summer temperatures and many parts of the northern hemisphere have left firefighters battling massive blazes in the united states at least five people have died in infernos raging

through northern california including two small children who perished with their great grandmother more than thirty eight thousand people have been ordered to evacuate their homes and authorities warn the fires are far from under control. people in northern california are used to wildfires but not on this scale firefighters say they have never seen anything like it. they're doing all they can to contain the flames but so far less than five percent of the blaze is under control. and it's burning in every direction all of the same time and we've got even though we have multiple resources the way that it's burning the intensity this burning uphill downhill even if it doesn't have a strong wind on it it's it's burning as if it's got a santa ana wind or for a strong sixty mile an hour seventy mile an hour wind. more than six hundred

properties and homes have been destroyed since the fire broke out on monday night forty thousand people have been forced to flee the flames. but the family of sherry bledsoe seen hail in the left did not manage to escape she receives the news that her children a four and five year old boy and her grandmother were killed as they waited for help their former home was being burned to the ground and neighbors said the community was taken by surprise by the speed of the fire there was nothing we were told we were in danger this was like you see in the movies with tornadoes i mean is it one minute it's fine the next minute everybody scream. the national guard has now also been drafted in to help but the dry weather and winds are hampering their efforts to put the fires out. to formula one now in the hungarian grand prix were lewis hamilton held on to his pole position to secure a victory meanwhile his teammate valtteri botha asked slip down from second to

fifth hamilton was followed by two ferrari drivers sebastian fattal and can you right in after yesterday's rain play qualify the hunger o. ring was bathed in sunlight of the race still featured two minor crashes as both tots collided with both fattal and daniel ricardo you're watching the news more coming up at the top of the hour or you can get the latest any time on our web site dot com thanks for watching and. make your smart and smarter with. what you want when you want to. update. the extraordinary. you decide what song. are no more than double the support.

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