Crusader Rowing Upstream in Cambodia

Incumbent Mu Sochua, 55, is already campaigning for the 2013 parliamentary election. (Justin Mott for The New York Times) More Photos >

February 22, 2010
By SETH MYDANS
International Herald Tribune

The Female Factor

MAK PRAING, CAMBODIA — “I’m going to get my votes!” cried Mu Sochua as she stepped into a slender rowboat, holding one side for balance. “One by one.”

She was crossing a small river here in southern Cambodia on a recent stop in her never-ending campaign for re-election to Parliament, introducing herself to rural constituents who may never have seen her face.

The most prominent woman in Cambodia’s struggling political opposition, Mu Sochua, 55, is campaigning now, three years before the next election, because she is almost entirely excluded from government-controlled newspapers and television.

“Only 35 percent of voters know who won the last election,” she said.

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