Cambodian PM hails ‘free, fair’ elections despite criticism

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday hailed this week’s elections as “free, fair and just” despite eliminating the opposition.

Hun Sen votes on Sunday with wife Bun Rany. Picture: AFP

Phnom Penh: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday hailed this week’s elections as “free, fair and just” after a vote with no viable opposition drew criticism from Washington, the EU and Australia.

Mr Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party is set to win all 125 parliamentary seats — ­cementing the country’s status as a one-party state — after the main opposition party was barred from contesting Sunday’s poll. But the strongman, who has ruled for 33 years, swept aside questions over the ballot’s legitimacy in a celebratory Facebook post yesterday.

“Cambodia decided the fate of the nation through a free, fair and just election,” he wrote.

Rights groups accused Mr Hun Sen of wiping out his political opposition, choking a free press and stamping out activism in the lead up to the poll.

Opposition figures had called for a voting boycott with a “clean finger” campaign, which election authorities said failed, with an ­estimated 82 per cent turnout and 6.3 million votes cast. But in a sign of protest, about 600,000 ballots were spoiled.

Mr Hun Sen said citizens cast their ballots “without pressure or being forced”, thanking voters for supporting the CPP. A CPP spokesman said on Monday the party was expected to take all 125 parliamentary seats across the country. Official results are ­expected on August 15.

The flawed election prompted swift criticism from the EU, which said the vote “lacks credibility”. The US threatened to broaden visa restrictions on senior Cambodian officials. Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the conduct of the election had reversed 25 years of democratic progress in Cambodia since the end of the civil war.

Cambodia’s key ally China, which has provided cash and soft loans to Hun Sen’s government while remaining silent on human rights abuses and democracy, offered its “sincere congratulations” on the poll.

The former head of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party — which was dissolved by the Supreme Court last year — refused to accept the results and said voters had been intimidated into supporting Mr Hun Sen. “A victory without a contest is a hollow one,” Sam Rainsy, who lives in self-exile in France, said on Facebook.

The CNRP clinched 44 per cent of the vote in the 2013 election, the most serious challenge to Mr Hun Sen, 65, since he rose to power in 1985. Mr Hun Sen has curried favour with ambitious infrastructure projects and patronage among employees of Cambodia’s important garment industry, whom he showered with gift and cash in the months leading up to the election.

AFP