Cambodia concluded its election over the weekend following which Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party declared a landslide victory. The vote has been widely dismissed as a sham due to the election being a one-horse race. Voters destroyed their ballets in resistance to the vote in a country where an election boycott is a criminal offence.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has warned such voters to turn themselves in or face legal consequences.
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Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is edging the end of his fourth decade in power posted on Telegram that of the 125 seats in the parliament, his party has won 120 seats while a royalist party won five.
Hun Sen said the turnout – the second highest in three decades – proved calls by his mostly overseas-based rivals to undermine the election with protest ballots had failed.
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Hun Sen’s party has been described as a political behemoth with a vast war chest. He faced no viable opponent during Sunday’s elections after a ruthless, years-long crackdown on its rivals and ban on its only big opponent in May.
Polls on Sunday (July 23) closed with a turnout of 84 per cent according to the election committee, with 8.1 million people voting in a much-criticised contest between CPP and 17 mostly obscure parties.
“We have won in a landslide,” said CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan.
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Prime Minister Hun Sen has ruled Cambodia for 38 years. With a calibrated transition to anointing his eldest son Hun Manet as successor, the leader has effectively eliminated obstacles in the form of competition in Cambodian politics.
Hun Sen has signalled his son Hun Manet – who currently commands the Royal Cambodian Army – “could be” the prime minister next month.
Since the 1990s, when the United Nations helped Cambodia transition into a functioning democracy after years of civil war and an atrocious Khmer Rouge regime, Hun Sen’s party has won all six national elections every five years.
Sunday’s election is Hun Sen’s seventh consecutive win.
Hun Sen has managed to consolidate his authoritarian leadership by controlling the military, police, and influential interests, neutralising opponents through various means such as co-opting, imprisoning, or exiling them.
(With inputs from agencies)
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