06 June 2012
Reuters
Critics say Hun Sen is a ruthless leader who has intimidated his opponents into submission or frightened them out of the country.
PHNOM PENH — Cambodia’s ruling party looks to have won a landslide win in local elections, putting
authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen on course to remain one of the
world’s longest-serving leaders after parliamentary elections next year.
Official results from Sunday’s elections for the chiefs of areas
known as communes are not expected for several weeks but the major
parties were in agreement that Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)
had swept the polls, as it has in all national ballots in the past
decade.
The CPP claimed 72 percent of the seats in what it sees as a test of
support ahead of the 2013 election. General elections take place every
five years.
“These results show a landslide victory,” top CPP member of
parliament Cheam Yeap told Reuters. “This is a basic projection for the
parliamentary election in the middle of next year.”
Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rogue soldier who defected to
eventual invaders Vietnam during the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-1979 reign of
terror, has been in power for 27 of his 59 years and has said he plans
to remain there until he dies.
A shrewd political tactician with an image as a tough-talking
strongman, Hun Sen’s supporters say he is popular among the millions of
rural poor, having overseen unprecedented growth, stability and
development since the decades of war that turned the former French
colony into a failed state.
Critics say Hun Sen is a ruthless leader who has
intimidated his opponents into submission or frightened them out of the
country.
The latest polls did throw up some signs of discontent,
with the CPP’s notable loss of seats in areas that have seen
long-running land disputes and forced evictions from land leased to
foreign companies. The government suspended new land concessions to foreign firms in May.
The main opposition Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) said early indications
from monitors showed it took just 21 percent of the seats but it said
there were irregularities in Sunday’s vote.
Its self-exiled leader, Sam Rainsy, who fled Cambodia after being sentenced to 12 years for forgery and destruction of property, among other crimes, says the 2013 vote will be a sham unless he is allowed to take part without serving jail time.
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