PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday opened his ruling party’s campaign for an election later this month — a poll that has been criticised as a sham after the main opposition party was prevented from running.
The 70-year-old strongman, who has ruled country of 16 million for 38 years, spoke before a crowd in the capital, Phnom Penh. He stood beside his son Hun Manet, who is also a candidate in the July 23 polls and widely tipped as his successor.
Hun Sen said his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has ensured peace, socio-economic development and the strengthening of democracy, adding that rights and freedoms were being respected.
He also vowed to eradicate “hostile circles seeking to incite national division, social chaos and political instability”.
“If the Cambodian People’s Party wins, the Cambodian people are the winners,” he told the crowd.
Other than the CPP, only small parties with little funding or popularity will be standing in the election.
The main opposition party was dissolved in 2017 over an alleged coup attempt, with scores of its members imprisoned. A party formed from its remnants was barred in May over a paperwork discrepancy.
The CPP won every seat in the 2018 national election after a court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party.
Hun Sen also recently ordered parliament to revise the law so that anyone who does not vote will be barred from contesting any future elections, effectively ending any remaining chances for exiled opposition figures to make a political comeback.
Prominent opposition figure Sam Rainsy has labelled the election a sham. The United States has said it is “deeply troubled” by the “undemocratic actions” ahead of the polls and will not send official observers to attend an electoral process “many independent Cambodian and international experts assess is neither free nor fair”.
This week Hun Sen quit Facebook for Telegram. The move came after the oversight board of Meta, the parent of Facebook, said on Thursday he should be suspended for six months for a post in which he said people who accused the CPP of buying votes in a previous election could face a beating from CPP supporters.
The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications said late Friday it would deport a Meta representative and Cambodia would cease all cooperation with the company, attributing the move to an abundance of fake accounts, data risks and lack of transparency.
But Hun Sen backed down on Saturday from an earlier threat to cut off access to Facebook in Cambodia.
Government spokesperson Phay Siphan on Thursday said the premier decided to switch to Telegram because it was easier to use and could reach more people.
During Hun Sen’s rule — one of the world’s longest premierships — political rivals have been jailed or exiled, critical media outlets shuttered and civil dissent crushed.
In recent months he has hinted that he will hand power to Hun Manet, deputy commander-in-chief of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
At the rally on Saturday, CPP supporter Yin Linda said she hoped Hun Manet, who was educated in Britain and the United States, would “bring new ideas from overseas to develop our country’s prosperity”.
