Cambodians began voting on Sunday for legislative elections without suspense, after which Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country with an iron fist for 38 years, should hand over to his eldest son.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (8 p.m. Montreal time) and will close at 3 p.m.
In the absence of any credible opposition after the exclusion of the main anti-power movement, Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) should, as in 2018, win all 125 seats in Parliament.
The ballot was described as “deeply worrying” by a coalition of 17 international NGOs, in a press release released on Saturday.
“The upcoming electoral exercise indicates a notable lack of transparency, fairness and inclusiveness in the electoral process,” wrote the rights organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL).
Hun Sen voted a few minutes after the opening of the ballot at a polling station in Ta Khmau, in the suburbs of Phnom Penh, according to AFP journalists present on the spot.
More than 9.7 million voters are being called to the polls for the seventh national elections since the Paris peace accords in 1991, which marked the end of the Khmer Rouge era.
At 70, Hun Sen, one of the world’s longest-serving leaders, is plotting his succession, keen to cement control before handing over to his eldest son, four-star general Hun Manet (45), trained in the United States and Britain.
The handover could take place within 3 to 4 weeks, he said in an interview this week.
Opposition muzzled
But the leader warned voters that he would continue to dominate Cambodian politics even after his departure.
His critics accuse him of having rolled back fundamental freedoms and used the judicial system to muzzle his opponents, who have been thrown by the dozens in prison.
Imposing his son, “it’s a stab in the back of the Cambodian people” from Hun Sen, said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, a human rights NGO.
His escapades “make Cambodia look like North Korea rather than a real democracy”, he notes.
Before the legislative elections, its policy of repression was further hardened against opponents, deprived of their freedom or in exile.
In the last national poll in 2018, the PPC won all the seats after a court dissolved the main opposition party.
This time it was the Candle Party, the prime minister’s only credible rival, that was kicked out of the race for failing to register properly with the electoral commission.
impose his son
“Today is a day of victory for us”, launched Hun Manet on Friday, during the last rally of the campaign, promising that the kingdom would regain the pride of the Khmer empire which radiated from the 9e at 13e century, symbolized by the temples of Angkor.
Faced with a tide of supporters, under a giant portrait of his father, he urged Cambodians to vote for the ruling party, the only one “capable of leading Cambodia”, a small poor kingdom in Southeast Asia, whose economy depends largely on China and international aid. He then took the lead of a procession of several thousand vehicles through the capital.
Hun Manet has recently taken the lead, gradually assuming the functions assumed directly by his father.
Member of the powerful permanent committee, he is for the first time candidate on a list of the CPP in Phnom Penh, the first step necessary to become prime minister.
“He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” political scientist Ou Virak analyzes for AFP. “Replacing his father will be a major challenge.”