Hun Sen’s Party Wins Cambodia’s Local Polls By Landslides, Early Results Show

In 2012, the Candlelight Party merged with the Human Rights Party to form the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which led to the historically strongest electoral performance by the opposition in the 2013 general elections and 2017 local elections.

In 2021, after the CNRP was dissolved, the CLP was reactivated and managed to field candidates nationwide, fielding a group second in size only to the ruling CPP.

However, the reborn CLP was strongly contested by embattled opposition leader Kem Sokha’s HRP faction, leaving the opposition in a fractured state. Sokha's aide, Muth Chantha, told VOA Khmer on Sunday that Sokha would not vote because there was no good option “for him to choose.”

The commune elections, held a year before general elections, are traditionally seen as a test of the ruling party’s strength.

The Sunday poll was held after CPP led a seemingly successful campaign to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccinating more than 93 percent of the 16 million population against the virus. It was also the first election since Hun Sen named his eldest son, Hun Manet, a three-star general and the nation’s army chief, as his designated successor.

Hun Sen has been in office as premier since 1985 while the CPP has been in power since 1979. The established ruling party entered the race in a position of strength against the 16 other opposition parties with firm controls on state’s institutions, resources, armed forces, grassroots networks, and a well-oiled propaganda machine.

In the northwestern city of Battambang, opposition supporters expressed mixed feelings about the early results.

“Despite losing, we will never back down,” said Soeun Ratha, who volunteered for CLP to observe polling stations in the city’s O’Char commune, “Winning or losing is normal because we may lose today and win back in the future.”

Voters speak up

In Phnom Penh, where all 105 commune-chief positions may go to the CPP, voters interviewed by VOA Khmer called for better public services and integrity in the local administration offices. Many said they preferred to consider individual candidates over party in this ‘party-list voting system’ — which as the name implies, party names and not candidates’ names are on the ballots.

“They [the commune councilors] will be tasked to be our guardians in which we can rely on because I will not look at which party they come from but at the candidates on whether they are capable of developing our community,” Da Ny, a 34-year-old housewife, told VOA Khmer after voting at Phnom Penh’s High School for Fine Arts Sunday morning.

Choeurn Sakhon, who voted at a polling station in Phnom Penh’s Indradevi High School, said local elected leaders should be down-to-earth and take care of those in need.

“They hold a noble role of serving the Khmer people,” Sakhon, 87, said in referring to Cambodia’s hegemonic ethnic group. “We must elect into power those who serve the people – regardless of which party. As long as the individual candidates can fulfill that role, it does not matter which party they come from, I’ll vote for them.”

Keo Chy, a Battambang resident, told VOA Khmer that he wanted newly elected local leaders to strengthen the quality of local services.

“The commune leader elected to receive people’s mandate shall be empowered to provide better administrative services, organize more townhall meetings to listen more to the people and let people participate more with the authorities in the villages and the communes,” Chy, 34, said.

Some other voters, when reached by VOA, declined interviews, citing fears of reprisal.

Source: VOA