PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s ruling party predicted a landslide win in Sunday’s one-horse election, an expected outcome after the main opposition was banned, paving the way for its leader Hun Sen to prolong his 33 years in power.
Hun Sen, who came to power in 1985 in a country still plagued by civil war, has cracked down on dissent in the run-up to the poll, pressuring civil society, independent media and his political opponents.
The National Election Commission said voter turnout was 82 percent, surpassing the final figure in 2013 of roughly 69 percent.
The 65-year-old prime minister, a one-time defector from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, has pointed to stability and growth as the fruits of his rule — a message that resonates with his base.
“Compatriots have chosen the democratic path and used your rights,” Hun Sen said on his official Facebook page in an apparent swipe at the opposition, which called for a boycott.
A ruling party spokesperson forecast a huge victory.
But there were also signs of despondency and indifference, and an expert on elections in Southeast Asia said the high turnout was misleading.
“With one-party rule election turnout is generally higher, not lower, because the party, in this case the Cambodian People’s Party, relies on voter intimidation more, relies on vote buying more, and turnout should be inflated that way,” said Lee Morgenbesser from the school of government and international relations at Griffith University.
Pictures of spoilt ballots circulated on social media though they could not be independently verified. AFP correspondents saw dozens of blank ballots set aside during counting.
“I did not go to vote. I slept at home,” said Khem Chan Vannak, a former commune chief elected with the now-banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
“A lot of my friends did not go to vote.”
Western governments have withdrawn their assistance from the election, citing its lack of credibility.
Nineteen small — or hitherto unknown — parties competed against Hun Sen’s ruling CPP in the absence of the CNRP. But analysts say they are too obscure or new to make a meaningful difference.
The CPP has won every election since 1998.
The opposition, whose leaders are in jail, underground or in self-exile, urged a “clean-finger” boycott of the vote as the only safe form of protest, a reference to the ink applied to people’s hands after they vote.