Cambodia election: Ruling party wins one horse race
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s ruling party won Sunday’s general election, the chief government spokesman said, a widely expected outcome in an election slammed as illegitimate, and which ensures that long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen will serve another five year-term.
Although 20 parties contested the election, the only one with the popularity and organisation to mount a real challenge, the Cambodian National Rescue Party, was dissolved last year by the Supreme Court in a ruling generally seen as political in nature.
The spokesman confirmed to The Associated Press that the Cambodian People’s Party had topped the polls. He did not say how many of the of the 125 seats in the National Assembly the CPP captured, but preliminary totals broadcast on state television showed that the party had won at least 70% of the vote in each of the country’s 25 provinces.
Local and foreign rights groups, along with several Western governments, agreed that the election would not be credible.
Charging that the polls were neither free nor fair, the disbanded CNRP’s former leaders had urged people not to vote in what was dubbed a “Clean Finger” campaign because those who did cast ballots had to dip a finger in indelible ink.
Doubts are also likely to be raised about the actual turnout figures because several established poll-watching groups — as well as contingents from the US and the EU — declined to take part because they felt the polls were not legitimate.