Phnom Penh, 06/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - European observers at the municipal elections last Sunday, which were won by the Labour Party (PTC) under Prime Minister Hun Sen, said they were encouraged by the way the ballot was held but still had reservations about the electoral campaign. "The elections allowed progress to be made towards consolidating democracy in Cambodia. Nonetheless, the unfolding of the pre-electoral period gives rise for concern", Carlos Costa Neves (EPP, Portugal), Head of the European Parliament Monitoring Mission, told the press. He mainly mentioned that there were some twenty murders of political activists and candidates, shortcomings with regards abiding by the law and tendentious media coverage, which did not give the parties a climate of real freedom and equal treatment.