Cambodia: Elections on the cusp of a dynastic regime

In the absence of any credible opposition after the exclusion of the main movement hostile to the government, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is expected, as in 2018, to sweep all 125 seats in Parliament.

The vote was described as “deeply worrying” by a coalition of 17 international NGOs, in a statement released on Saturday.

“The upcoming electoral exercise indicates a notable lack of transparency, fairness and inclusion in the electoral process,” wrote the human rights organizations, including FIDH and the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel).

Hun Sen voted minutes after polls opened at a polling station in Ta Khmau, a suburb of Phnom Penh, according to AFP journalists on the scene.
More than 9.7 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the seventh national elections since the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, which marked the end of the Khmer Rouge regime.

At 70, Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, is preparing his succession, hoping to cement control before handing over to his eldest son, four-star general Hun Manet (45), trained in the United States and Great Britain.

The handover could take place within 3 to 4 weeks, he said in an interview this week.

Silenced Opposition

But the leader warned voters that he would continue to dominate Cambodian politics even after he left office.

His critics accuse him of rolling back fundamental freedoms and using the judicial system to silence his opponents, who have been thrown in prison by the dozens.

Imposing his son is “a stab in the back of the Cambodian people” by Hun Sen, says Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, a human rights NGO.

His antics “make Cambodia look more like North Korea than a true democracy,” he observes.

Before the parliamentary elections, his policy of repression became even harsher towards opponents, who were deprived of their freedom or forced into exile.

In the last national election in 2018, the PPC won all the seats after the main opposition party was dissolved by a court.

This time, it was the Candle Party, the Prime Minister’s only credible rival, that was excluded from the race for not having registered properly with the electoral commission.

Impose his son

“Today is a day of victory for us,” said Hun Manet on Friday, at the final rally of the campaign, promising that the kingdom would regain the pride of the Khmer empire that flourished from the 9th to the 13th century, symbolized by the temples of Angkor.

Facing a sea of ​​supporters, beneath a giant portrait of his father, he urged Cambodians to vote for the ruling party, the only one “capable of leading Cambodia,” a small, impoverished kingdom in Southeast Asia whose economy is largely dependent on China and international aid. He then led a procession of several thousand vehicles through the capital.

Hun Manet has recently risen through the ranks, gradually assuming functions previously held directly by his father.

A member of the powerful Standing Committee, he is running for the first time on a CPP list in Phnom Penh, the first necessary step to becoming prime minister.
“He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” political scientist Ou Virak told AFP. “Replacing his father will be a major challenge.” AFP

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