Hun Sen’s triumph

CPC willing to strengthen strategic partnership between two neighbors

Xi hails party election victory of Cambodian prime minister

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, sent a message to Hun Sen, president of Cambodian People’s Party on Wednesday, congratulating him on his party’s victory in the sixth National Assembly Election.

Hun Sen’s ruling party won all 125 seats in the election, official results released on Wednesday showed, ensuring that the prime minister will have another five-year term.

Xi said that China was glad to see that Cambodia, under the leadership of the government led by Hun Sen, has enjoyed political stability, fast economic development, growing international status and fruitful progress in various areas in recent years.

According to Xi, the Communist Party of China highly values its friendly cooperation with CPP, and is willing to strengthen the political guiding role of exchanges between the two parties in bilateral ties and deepen the exchange of experience in ruling the party and the country.

The CPC is also willing to push forward the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Cambodia, jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind, thus benefiting both countries and their people as well as the region and the world, he said.

In a letter released late on Wednesday in response to Xi’s message, Hun Sen expressed his full commitment to work closely with Xi to promote party-to-party, government-togovernment and people-topeople exchanges.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent a congratulatory message to Hun Sen in the same day.

China is willing to promote the comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level at the opportunity of 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Li said.

Twenty political parties contested the sixth general election on July 29. The National Election Committee said the CPP garnered 4.88 million votes, or 76.84 percent, of the total valid votes.

‘Free, fair and just’

In a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday, Hun Sen said the election was “free, fair and just”.

In a speech to thousands of garment factory workers on Wednesday in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen expressed his profound gratitude to people for overwhelmingly supporting the CPP.

“This result shows that our compatriots fully believed in the right leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party which is led by Prime Minister Hun Sen,” Hun Sen said on his Facebook page after the announcement of the official results, adding that voting for his party meant voting for peace and development for the entire country.

Hun Sen also said he wanted to hold a meeting with the leaders of the 19 other parties that contested the election, and was considering offering them positions as government advisers or senior posts in various ministries.

The new parliament is to convene on Sept 5, and the next government is to be installed the following day.

However, after the election result coming out, the US State Department said the United States is expanding visa restrictions on Cambodia. Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Washington has characterized the election as “flawed and neither free nor fair”.

Spokesman for the CPP, Sok Eysan, on Thursday called the move “useless”.

“The restrictions or so-called sanctions on Cambodia will not be effective,” he said.

“For example, if I don’t want to go to that country, how can they block my visa?”

This result shows that our compatriots fully believed in the right leadership of the CPP ...”

Hun Sen, Cambodian PM said on his Facebook page