HUN SEN SET TO WIN POLLS
Cambodian strongman set to extend 33-year rule without opposition
CAMBODIA voted yesterday in an election set to extend strongman premier Hun Sen’s 33 years in power after the only credible opposition was dissolved, effectively turning the country into a one-party state.
Hun Sen, who came to power in 1985, cracked down on dissent in the run-up to the polls, squeezing out civil society, independent media and his political opponents.
Western governments had pulled their assistance from the polls, citing its lack of credibility, with rights groups and the opposition describing it as knockout blow to the democratic process.
Nineteen small — or hitherto unknown — parties were competing against Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party in the absence of the main opposition.
But with the result a foregone conclusion, the focus will be on turnout in what has become a plebiscite on Hun Sen’s popularity.
The opposition, whose leaders were in jail, underground or in self-exile, has urged a “clean-finger” boycott as the only safe form of protest.
But lines stretched out of many polling stations early yesterday, as voters showed up at schools and pagodas to cast ballots.
“I came to vote because I want happiness, development and peace for the country,” said Im Chanthan, 54, casting a ballot in the same station as Hun Sen in Kandal province.
The strongman leader smiled as he and his wife Bun Rany arrived to cast ballots, holding up an ink-stained finger for the bank of photographers.
Hun Sen, 65, a one-time Khmer Rouge commander who defected as the hardline regime began to crumble, said stability and economic growth were gifts of his years in power — a message that resonates with his base.
The ruling CPP has won every election since 1998.
More than eight million voters are registered for the sixth general election since the United Nations first sponsored polls in 1993.