PHNOM PENH – Cambodia’s ruling party claimed victory on Sunday in a general election criticised for being one-sided.
Mr Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), told The Straits Times on Sunday evening: “We have won by a landslide, but we can’t calculate the number of seats we have won yet.”
He claimed, however, that the party had won about 78 per cent to 80 per cent of the vote share. The proportion of invalid votes – which was closely watched, given an opposition campaign to spoil ballots as an act of protest – was about 3 per cent, he said.
Official results are not expected for days yet, but the National Election Committee (NEC) said the turnout among the 9.7 million registered voters was 84.6 per cent. This is higher than the 83 per cent achieved in 2018.
The CPP led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has held the position for nearly four decades, won all 125 seats in the National Assembly in 2018 and was expected to do the same in Sunday’s election, after the strongest opposition party was excluded.
Human rights groups have decried the disqualification of the Candlelight Party in May on a technicality, as well as the repression and intimidation of opposition activists who had urged people to spoil their votes in protest.
The NEC said the party failed to submit proper registration documents.
The Candlelight Party is linked to long-time self-exiled politician Sam Rainsy, who claims it was disqualified for posing a threat to the CPP’s dominance.
Amendments to the law in 2023 bar those who do not vote from standing for future elections. It penalises people who discourage voting with a fine of 5 million riels (S$1,610) to 20 million riels.
The NEC has also threatened to prosecute those who incited others to spoil their ballots.
NEC spokesman Dim Sovannarom told ST on Sunday that people came to “cast their vote freely, secretly, without any intimidation”.
“They have a choice, to cast a valid ballot or an invalid ballot, depending on their goodwill or their bad will. Their vote is secret,” he said.
The CPP had pledged that there would be a significant leadership renewal after the election, while Mr Hun Sen had told Chinese television station Phoenix TV in an interview aired last Thursday that his son Hun Manet may be made premier “in just three or four weeks”.
Mr Hun Manet, 45, Western-educated and a four-star general, was chosen as the CPP’s “future” prime minister candidate as early as in 2021.
In the lead-up to the election, he had raised his public stature, and even took the helm at a closing ceremony of the CPP’s election campaign last Friday.
Mr Hun Sen told Phoenix TV that his son was “more competent” than him, adding that he himself “won’t have the power to sign any Bills” in about a month.
Mr Hun Manet declined to comment on Sunday when asked about the premiership. “I’ve just come to vote today, not to make a statement,” he told reporters at his polling station at Toul Kork Primary School.
He obliged, however, when some bystanders asked to be photographed with him.
Some voters were optimistic about this looming political transition.
“If (Hun Manet) had no profile and his background was bad, and (Hun Sen) still tried to promote his son, we would feel uncomfortable. The youth would reject it,” Ms Seng So Dawin, 32, who owns a driving school, told ST.
“But his background is good and he has shown himself to be polite and humble. I would like to give him the opportunity to prove himself,” she added.
Others were more wary.
“I support the Candlelight Party. Now that it is disqualified, I don’t know what to do,” Ms Tep Theary, a 56-year-old housewife, told ST.
Life after the leadership transition “would be same”, she said. “The citizens would still be suffocated. The poor will remain poor and the rich will remain rich.”
- Additional reporting by Cheng Sokhorng
