Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party declared a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election – a vote that critics have widely dismissed as a sham designed to consolidate the party’s rule ahead of an expected handover of power to its eldest son.
The contest was effectively a one-horse race, with Hun Sen’s People’s Party of Cambodia (CPP), a political behemoth with a vast war chest, facing no viable opponents after years of relentless crackdowns on its rivals.
The CPP has governed Cambodia since 1979, while Premier Hun Sen took office in 1985.
The polls closed with an 84% turnout, according to the election committee, with 8.1 million people voting in a much-maligned race between the CPP and 17 obscure parties, none of which won seats in the last election in 2018.
The only opponent with any real influence was disqualified from the race.
“We won overwhelmingly… but we still cannot calculate the number of seats,” said CPP spokesman Sok Eysan.
Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years, has brushed aside all Western concerns about the election’s credibility, determined to avoid any obstacles in his carefully calibrated transition to his anointed successor and eldest son, Hun Manet.
No deadline had been given for the handover until Thursday, when Hun Sen signaled that his son “could be” prime minister next month, depending “on whether Hun Manet will be able to do so or not”.
He needed to win a seat in the National Assembly to become prime minister, which was likely.
Hun Sen said the turnout – the second highest in three decades – proved that calls by his rivals, particularly abroad, to undermine the ballot election had failed.
Source: CNN Brasil
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