Cambodia’s ruling party claims ‘huge’ election win, opposition rejects outcome

The ruling party of Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen has secured an easy landslide in general elections, which has been rejected by the banned opposition and other critics as a “sham.”

Preliminary results of the Sunday election released by the National Election Committee showed Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) had won an outright majority of the votes.

The commission said 6.8 million people cast their ballots — down from about 7.1 million in last July’s local elections — or 82% of registered voters.

CPP spokesman Sok Eysan told media late Sunday that they expected to win “over 100 seats” in the 125-seat parliament.

“The CPP will get more than 80 percent of the popular vote,” he said. “This is a huge victory for us.”

The DAP news, a pro-government website, said later the CPP had won 114 seats.

Two other parties, the royalist Funcinpec Party and the League for Democracy Party, won five and six seats, respectively.

Hun Sen, 65, a one-time defector from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, has pointed to stability and growth as the fruits of his rule.

“Compatriots have chosen the democratic path and used your rights,” he said on his Facebook page after polls closed in an apparent swipe at the opposition, which had been banned from the vote and called for a boycott.

Meanwhile, the opposition rejected the results.

“The result announced by the CPP and the National Election Committee must be fully rejected by the international community,” Mu Sochua, vice president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), told a news conference in Jakarta.

“29 July 2018 marked the death of democracy in Cambodia, a dark new day in recent history,” he added.

The CNRP was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court last year after it was found guilty of trying to overthrow the government, charges it denies.

Critics say the election was a backward step for democracy in Cambodia following the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the jailing of its leader, Kem Sokha, on treason charges.

US meddling

Meanwhile, Cambodian authorities reported attempts by the United States to influence the vote by sponsoring certain media outlets and NGOs.

In order to thwart the foreign plot, Radio Free Asia, the National Democratic Institute and other US-backed organizations were kicked out of the country.

“Foreign interference will not stand in Cambodian democracy,” Suos Yara, the ruling party’s spokesman, told media. “They never stop… they want to continue their mission to topple the government.”

The opposition, however, said the government has used American interference claims to stifle a dissident party representing nearly half of the population.

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