PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) – Cambodia’s electoral body on Saturday announced the final results of last month’s election, sealing a landslide victory for the ruling party of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen and a mandate for the next five years.
In an announcement on TVK state television and government social media platforms, the country’s National Election Committee said Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party won 120 of 125 available seats in the July 23 general election.
The royalist Funcinpec Party won five seats, while none of the other 16 political parties gained any seats.
The Cambodian People’s Party received 6,398,311 votes from a total of 8.2 million ballots cast in the popular vote. Funcinpec garnered 716,490 popular votes. There were 8.2 million paper ballots cast, including more than 7.7 million valid votes and 440,154 voided by the committee.
In a widely anticipated move, Hun Sen announced on July 27 he was stepping down at the end of the month and handing the premiership to his oldest son, Hun Manet, the country’s army chief.
The change in the Cambodian People’s Party comes after an election that Western countries and rights organisations criticised as neither free nor fair, in large part because the country’s main opposition, the Candlelight Party, was barred from the election.
The new national leader, Hun Manet, 45, won his first seat in Parliament in July’s election. The handover is part of a larger, generational shift: Many younger lawmakers are expected to take up ministerial positions, including Hun Sen’s youngest son and others related to older party members.
Many were educated in the West, like Hun Manet, who has a bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate from Bristol University in Britain, all in economics.
