Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen may remain in power for another five years after a major ‘victory’ in mock elections on Sunday. The dictator won about 80 percent of the vote in the elections, his party, the CPP, told the AP news agency on Monday. With this he wins 120 of the 125 parliamentary seats. Western countries refused to send observers because the outcome was predetermined. Political rivals were silenced by Hun Sen and banned from the elections.
Hun Sen has been prime minister since 1985, making him one of the longest-serving dictators in the world. He began his bloody career with the genocidal Khmer Rouge, the guerrilla army that gripped Cambodia in the 1970s. He soon defected to Vietnam, which invaded Cambodia and expelled the Khmer Rouge in 1979. In recent years, Hun Sen’s foreign policy has focused mainly on China, by far Cambodia’s largest (economic) partner. Human rights activists, opposition parties and media have been skillfully silenced by Hun Sen for the past 38 years.
Whether the 70-year-old dictator himself will actually stay in office remains to be seen. He has already hinted that he will soon hand over the baton to his son Hun Manet (45). Manet was educated in the United States and the United Kingdom and presents himself as a nice family man. Despite his friendlier image and Western education, it remains to be seen whether Hun Manet will be a more liberal leader than his father.
Read also How the Cambodian autocrat Hun Sen prepares a transfer of power to his son