Amid crisis, Cambodia sets up poll stations

At the Toul Kork Primary School in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh volunteers swept classrooms and laid out wooden desks on Saturday, transforming rooms into polling booths ahead a general election Prime Minister Hun Sen is expected to easily win.

“I believe voters will come out to vote,” said Yos Vanthan, head of the school’s election committee. Hun Sen’s critics have called for an election boycott, saying that without any real opposition to the government, the poll will be a shame. Voting is not mandatory, but authorities have warned that anyone who boycotts the vote will be seen as a “traitor”.

Nineteen political parties are running against Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) but none are strongly critical of the prime minister or the government.

His main challenge the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which narrowly lost the last election in 2013, was dissolved by the Supreme Court last year and many of its lawmakers banned from politics for five years. Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander who eventually defected from Pol Pot’s murderous regime, has been in power for more than 30 years and is the world’s longest serving prime minister.

Meanwhile, China announced a major infrastructure project in Cambodia midway through its election campaign and denounced proposed economic sanctions by the European Union on the Southeast Asian nation. China’s ambassador in Phnom Penh also attended a ruling party rally in the Cambodian capital, according to a media report.

The flurry of moves during the three-week campaign shows China is leaving nothing to chance to ensure its most loyal ally in Southeast Asia, Cambodia’s long-time ruler Hun Sen, comfortably wins Sunday’s poll, political analysts said.