CPP ‘wins all seats’
> Cambodian opposition sees ‘death of democracy’
PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) said yesterday it had won all 125 parliamentary seats up for grabs in a general election a day earlier that critics said was neither free nor fair.
“The CPP won 77.5% of the votes and won all the parliamentary seats,” CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said. “The other parties won no seats.” Cambodia woke to another chapter of rule by strongman Hun Sen yesterday, a day after an election that was heavily criticised by rights groups and the West.
In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday’s vote “failed to represent the will of the Cambodian people”.
“The flawed elections, which excluded the country’s principal opposition party, represent the most significant setback yet to the democratic system enshrined in Cambodia’s constitution,” she said.
The campaign was marred by threats from national and local leaders, she said.
Sanders said the US would consider “additional steps to respond to the elections and other recent setbacks to democracy and human rights in Cambodia”, including an expansion of visa restrictions placed on some Cambodian government members.
Critics say the polls was a backward step for democracy in Cambodia following the dissolution last year of the main opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) and the jailing of its leader, Kem Sokha, for treason.
Former CNRP president Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile, said the election was a “hollow” victory for Hun Sen.
CNRP deputy director of foreign affairs Monovithya Kem told a news conference in Jakarta yesterday the party welcomed the White House statement and hoped others would follow suit.
The CNRP also called on the international community to reject the result of the election.
“July 29, 2018 marked the death of democracy in Cambodia, a dark new day in recent history,” CNRP vic- president Mu Sochua said.
“The result must be fully rejected by the international community.”
As many as 594,843 votes, or 8.4%, of the 7.64 million votes cast, were invalid and spoiled, figures from the National Election Committee showed.
“It is a significant vote of disapproval of this particular election and an act of defiance of the unlawful coercion on voters to go to vote,” Cambodia-based political analyst Lao Mong Hay said.
CNRP leaders had called for a boycott of the vote, prompting the government to warn that anyone who did not participate would be seen as a “traitor”. – Reuters