Cambodia opposition leader Sam Rainsy shows his ink-stained finger after casting his ballot at polling station during the general election at Chan Moly pagoda in Bateay district, Kampong Cham province, about 50km from Phnom Penh July 27, 2008. REUTERS/Nicolas Axelrod (CAMBODIA)

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen shows his ink-stained finger to the media after casting his ballot at a polling station during the general election at Takmoa town in Kandal province, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh July 27, 2008. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

FACTBOX - Key Facts About Cambodia

Sun Jul 27, 2008 (Reuters)

(Reuters) - Cambodians went to the polls on Sunday in a general election likely to hand another five years in power to Prime Minister Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

Following are some key facts about Cambodia:

GEOGRAPHY: The Southeast Asian country has an area of 181,035 square km (69,898 square miles), about 40 percent of which is forest. Neighbours are Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

CAPITAL: Phnom Penh

POPULATION: 14,241,640 (2008)

ETHNICITY: Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire, constitute 90 percent of the population. Vietnamese are 5 percent, Chinese 1 percent and others 4 percent.

RELIGION: Theravada Buddhism is the state religion and it is observed by 95 percent of the population. The rest practise Mahayana Buddhism, Islam and Christianity.

LANGUAGE: Khmer is the official language. Some English and French are spoken in the cities.

ECONOMY:

-- Cambodia's economy is based on agriculture, tourism and light industry, in particular garments made for export.

-- The International Monetary Fund forecasts economic growth of 7 percent for 2008.

-- Gross domestic product, by 2008 estimates, is $9.92 billion (4.98 billion pounds), and GDP per capita is $678.

-- Exports were worth $4.31 billion in 2007.

-- A U.N.-brokered peace pact in 1991 restored Sihanouk as a constitutional monarch. Elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003 led to coalition governments dominated by Hun Sen and the CPP.

Sources: Reuters; CIA World Factbook; IMF; World Bank.

(Writing by Jijo Jacob, editing by David Cutler)

-- Cambodia's annual inflation rate hit 18.7 percent in January.

* SOME HISTORY:

-- Cambodia emerged as a newly independent nation in 1953 under King Norodom Sihanouk, who was overthrown in a right-wing coup in 1970.

-- Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge guerrillas launched a bloody agrarian revolution in 1975. An estimated 1.7 million people died over the next four years in rural labour camps that became known as the "Killing Fields".

Labels: Election